LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Seymour Villiers BROWN
Service No: 405997
Born: Southport QLD, 10 June 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 July 1941
Unit: No. 12 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wickenby
Died: Air Operations: (No. 12 Squadron Lancaster aircraft ED972), Germany, 31 August 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Edwin and Katherine Isabel Brown, of Southport, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2350 hours on the night of 30 August 1943 Lancaster ED972 took off from Wickenby to bomb Nonchen-Gladbach, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. The aircraft crashed in the target area and all the crew members were killed
The crew members of ED972 were:
Sergeant Arthur Reginald Bish (1199609) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Lieutenant Arnold Booth DFC (124861) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Seymour Villiers Brown (405997) (Navigator)
Pilot Officer Norman Roscoe Frazer (408585) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Mervyn Stacey (623214) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Joseph Henry Short (413674) (Bomb Aimer)
Wing Commander John Gordon Towle (37334) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Sergeant Ralph Wildbore (1321712) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper 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, 166/6/257
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line