Pilot Officer Ross Gregory of the Royal Australian Air Force, attached to RAF 215 Squadron, was killed on 10 June 1942 when the Wellington bomber on which he was the observer exploded in mid-air near Gafargaon in the Mymensingh district of Bengal. Gregory had played two Tests for Australia in 1937 and was widely tipped to be a long-term replacement for Bradman in the middle order. He is the only Test cricketer to die in active service in Asia, and his death — alongside those of Farnes, Verity and Turnbull — became part of the running ledger of cricketers lost to the war.
Born in Melbourne in 1916, Gregory played for Victoria from 1935 and broke into the Test side at 21 during the 1936-37 Ashes. His top score of 80 at Melbourne in February 1937 came in a partnership with Bradman that helped Australia recover from 0/3 to win the Test. He was already a Sheffield Shield captaincy candidate when he enlisted.
By mid-1942 the Japanese advance through Burma had brought RAF and Commonwealth bomber squadrons forward to Bengal and Assam to interdict supply lines. 215 Squadron, equipped with Wellingtons, was operating from forward fields and conducting both bombing and reconnaissance missions over Burmese targets in extremely difficult monsoon weather.
Gregory had enlisted in the RAAF in 1940 and trained as an observer (navigator/bomb aimer). By June 1942 he was attached to RAF 215 Squadron, then operating Vickers Wellingtons out of bases in north-east India and Bengal against Japanese targets in Burma.
On 10 June 1942 his aircraft exploded in mid-air near the village of Gafargaon, in the Mymensingh district of what was then Bengal Province (now Bangladesh, roughly 50 km from the Assam border). All six members of the crew — four Australians, including the two pilots, and two RAF personnel — were killed. The cause was never definitively established; most accounts suggest a fuel-related fire.
Gregory was 26. His Test record was small but startling: 23, 50 and 80 in his three innings against England in the 1936-37 Ashes, all before he turned 22. Bradman had said publicly that Gregory was the most likely batsman of his generation to take Australian middle-order batting forward into the 1940s.
He is buried at Maynamati War Cemetery in Bangladesh, alongside his crewmates. His name is on the Lord's Roll of Honour and on the AIF memorial at the MCG.
Enlists in the RAAF in 1940
Trains as an observer (navigator/bomb aimer) in Australia and Canada
Posted to RAF 215 Squadron, operating Wellingtons over Burma from Bengal
10 Jun 1942 — Wellington explodes in mid-air near Gafargaon
All six crew killed; cause never officially determined
Buried at Maynamati War Cemetery, Bangladesh
28 Feb 1916
Born in Melbourne
1935
First-class debut for Victoria
1936-37
Plays two Tests v England; tops with 80 at Melbourne
1940
Enlists in the RAAF
1942
Posted to RAF 215 Squadron in Bengal
10 Jun 1942
Killed when Wellington explodes near Gafargaon
“A batsman whose loss Australia could ill afford.”
“If anyone can take over from Bradman in the middle order, it will be young Gregory.”
News reached Melbourne in mid-June 1942. The Australian Cricket Board and Victoria CA issued joint tributes. Bradman, then in the Royal Australian Air Force himself but invalided out for back trouble, wrote privately to Gregory's mother. Wisden's 1943 obituary called Gregory 'a batsman whose loss Australia could ill afford'.
The only Test cricketer to die in action in Asia. A career barely begun and a generational Australian batting talent extinguished at 26.
Gregory's name appears on the Lord's wartime Roll of Honour, on the AIF memorial at the MCG, and on the Maynamati War Cemetery memorial in Bangladesh. He is regularly cited in Australian cricket histories as the great 'what if' of the wartime generation.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.