LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Leslie William POULSON
Service No: 424680
Born: Newcastle NSW, 16 July 1924
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 October 1942
Unit: No. 138 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Tempsford
Died: Air Operations (No. 138 Squadron Stirling aircraft LK143), North Sea, 3 December 1944, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William George Poulson, and of Violet Ethel Poulson, of Cook’s Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Newcastle NSW
Remembered: Panel 261, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0035 hours on 3 December 1944 Stirling LK143 took off from Tempsford together with other aircraft of the Squadron on a special mission to drop supplies and containers over Denmark. The drop positions were 56.26N, 010.35E, and 56.33N, 010.12E. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Following post war searches and investigations which could find no trace of the missing aircraft or crew, it was considered probable that the aircraft came down in the North Sea and that the crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of LK143 were:
Sergeant Arthur Cecil Butler (1836613) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Frederick albert Walter Filer (1337166) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Joseph Albert Golding (945043) (RAFVR) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant John George Harris (1399950) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Flying Officer George Frederick Nichols (175089) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Leslie William Poulson (424680) (Wireless Operator Air)
Flight Sergeant Charles Edward Terrell (188483) (RAFVR) (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, 166/33/260