LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer William John MAWDESLEY
Service No: 401073
Born: Picola VIC, 21 October 1911
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 December 1940
Unit: No. 23 Operational Training Unit (RAF), Detachment RAF Station Stradishall, Suffolk
Died: Air Operations: (No. 23 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft R1266), Netherlands, 2 June 1942, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Uden War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netheralnds
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James Henry and Elsie Catherine Maudsley of Picola Victoria, Australia. husband of Lorna Irene Mawdesley of East Malvern, Victoria
Roll of Honour: Picola VIC
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2305 hours on 2 June 1942, Wellington R1266 took off from Stradishall detailed to bomb Essen, Germany. Nothing was hard from the aircraft and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed near the Terwindt Brickyard at Kerkdriel (Gelderland) on the west bank of the Naas, some 13 kms west north west of Oss in the neighbouring Province of Noord Brabant. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of R1266 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Norman Killby (1150769) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer William John Mawdesley (401073) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Gerald Weyman Murray (J/8623) (RCAF) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Thomas Lloyd Joseph Norrie (R/72641) (RCAF) (Air Gunner) (US citizen from Baltimore, Maryland)
Flight Sergeant Frank John Barnes Scrimes (R/85408) (RCAF) (Observer)
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, 162/44/146