LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Horace Kempton BEDWELL
Service No: 404165
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 22 November 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 June 1940
Unit: No. 158 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Driffield
Died: Air Operations: (No. 158 Squadron Wellington aircraft Z8525), North Sea, 30 April 1942, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edward Kempton Bedwell and Simona Jeanne Charlotte Bedwell, of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Toowoomba QLD
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2128 hours on 29 April 1942 Wellington Z8525 took off from Driffield to carry out an operational sortie on Ostend, Belgium. The aircraft carried 12 x 250 lb (pound) bombs and enough fuel for 8 to 9 hours flying. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. Following post war enquiries and investigations it was recorded in 1949 that the missing crew members were lost at sea.
The crew members of Z8525 were:
Flight Sergeant Horace Kempton Bedwell (404165) (Observer)
Sergeant Douglas Ronald Freear (1059256) (RAFVR) (First Wireless Operator)
Sergeant Gordon Randolph LeFebvre (R/62661) (RCAF) (Second Wireless Operator)
Sergeant John Edward Travers Saunders (1263253) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Herbert Reginald Frank Wakeford (650367) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/91/209