"Thy will be done" memorial card relating to the service for the victims of the R101 airship disaster, 1930

On 5 October 1930 the rigid airship R101 crashed near Beauvais in France and immediately caught fire. The largest airship in the world was reduced to a skeleton of metal. This incident happened during its maiden voyage to India which begun on 4 October 1930 from Cardington. This disaster stopped airship development in the United Kingdom, 54 men were on board the R101, six survived.

Those onboard comprised thirty-seven crew, five officers, six officials of the Royal Airship Works and six passengers. Many of the crew were veterans of the First World War and had served in the Royal Naval Air Service or the Royal Flying Corps. Those killed included the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Thomson and Air Vice Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, on board in his role as Director of Civil Aviation, a post he had held since 1922. Brancker had been at the forefront in promoting aviation in the United Kingdom. The youngest crewman to die was Galley Boy Thomas William Megginson at the age of 18. The oldest First Engineer William Rose Gent at the age of 53.