LEST WE FORGET
Wing Commander Donald James MacPHERSON
Service No: 110
Born: Rutherglen VIC, 20 July 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 July 1935
Unit: RAAF Headquarters London
Died: Naval Operations: off Bermuda, 2 April 1943, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Donald Alex and Isabel Mary MacPherson; of Kew, Victoria, Australia; husband of Pamela MacPherson
Roll of Honour: Kew VIC
Remembered: Panel 187, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 97, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Wing Commander MacPherson trained as a Signaller and passed the RAF Specialist Signals
Course at RAF Station Cranwell in November 1941 and was engaged on Secret Cypher work. He was finishing a period of service with the RAF and was presumed dead on 8 April 1943.
On 2 April 1943, Wing Commander MacPherson was lost when the merchant ship Melbourne Star was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-129 when south east of Bermuda at position 28.05N 057.30W. The ship was on a voyage from Liverpool and the Clyde to Cristobal, Panama and Australia with 8,285 tons of Government stores and general cargo, including torpedoes and ammunition. Only 4 of the crew of 75, 11 gunners and 31 passengers survived.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Blue Star Line Website
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record AWM65, 3299; A9300 MACPHERSON D J