LEST WE FORGET
Supply Assistant Alan Amos PATCHING
Service No: PM3145 (Royal Australian Navy)
Born: Adelaide SA, 18 August 1921
Enlisted in the RAN: 14 November 1940 (at Port Melbourne VIC)
Unit: HMAS Melville
Died: Air Raid: Darwin NT, 19 March 1942, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Adelaide River War Cemetery NT
CWGC Additional Information: Son of the Revd. Stanley Leslie Patching and Florence Bertha Patching, of Southwark, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Adelaide SA
Remembered: Panel 4, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Three days later (19 March) seven Japanese aircraft bombed the residential area in Darwin and the naval headquarters. There were nine casualties, two of which were fatal.
Extract from Gillison, D.N. (Douglas Napier) (254475) Royal Australian Air Force 1939-1942, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1962 – Page 469
The second fatality was Mr Keith Davern who was a crew member of the Zealandia that had been sunk in the raid of 19 February 1942.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A6770, PATCHING A A