Eric Frank Edsall

Eric Frank Edsall was a Flight Lieutenant, service number 81368. CWGC records his death on 12 April 1942, aged 24, and his burial at Trincomalee War Cemetery. The local award trail records the DFM, while the Gazette and Aircrew Remembered exact casualty row provide service-number matches.

The web search for Edsall produced limited but useful corroboration. Kabristan’s Trincomalee War Cemetery index lists Eric Frank Edsall with service number 81368 and DFC at that cemetery. Martin’s Aviation Pages records an earlier, non-fatal incident on the night of 10/11 August 1940: Pilot Officer Eric Frank Edsall was unhurt after Spitfire I R6901 of No. 54 Squadron belly-landed at Hornchurch during dusk landing practice. A separate Ceylon air-raid PDF snippet names Flight Lieutenant Eric Frank Edsall with service number 81368 among Ceylon-related losses, but this draft does not use it for a detailed loss narrative because the checked search output did not provide enough context.