A permanent memorial will be dedicated to the crew of a World War Two plane that crashed in the remote Scottish Highlands.

Sergeant Harold Arthur Tompsett, 20, from Croydon, was among six airmen killed when their aircraft, an Avro Anson, crashed in April 1941 on a training mission.

The wreckage was not discovered for more than a month when a shepherd found the bodies of five men wrapped in the parachutes – at least three survived the crash and died of exposure while Sergeant Charles Mitchell was found dead a mile away, possibly after trying to find help.

So remote is the site the bodies could not be moved and a small grave was established, but now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will set up a granite memorial to mark the location.

Iain Anderson, the commission’s Scotland supervisor, said: "It really is miles from anywhere.You need to be a good map reader to find the site because it’s easy to miss.

"And the weather can change very quickly in the Highlands so you need to know what you are doing."

The challenge facing the commission is how to get the 600kg granite slab, to be inscribed and placed over the airmen’s last resting place, to the site.

The commission’s UK director, Barry Murphy, said: “We are ordering the stone.

“It’s just a matter of how and when we get it up there.”

To ensure a memorial is maintained, a second plaque at a churchyard in Inchnadamph, the nearest town, has also been created.

The airmen who died alongside sergeants Tompsett and Mitchell included Pilot Officer William Drew, Sergeant Jack Emery; Flight Sergeant Thomas Kenny, and Flying Officer James Steyn.

Sgt Tompsett, son of Harold and Annie Tompsett, and husband to Anabeth Tompsett, was a wireless operator and gunner.

The commission is writing to the last known address of the airmen’s next of kin, to try to let the families know that work is going to be carried out at the burial site.