LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Jack Ivan PRITCHARD
Service No: 421047
Born: Wollongong NSW, 20 April 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 December 1941
Unit: No. 467 Squadron, RAF Station Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NF908), Staffordshire, 3 January 1945, Aged 30 Years
Buried: Chester (Blacon) Cemetery, Cheshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George and Lillian Grace Pritchard; husband of Catherine Mary Pritchard, of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Remembrance Driveway Memorial Plantation, Yagoona NSW
Lancaster NF908 took off from RAF Waddington at 1430 hours on 3 January 1945 on a fighter affiliation training exercise. At about 1600 hours the aircraft flew into high ground that was shrouded in cloud some 4 kms north north east of Leek, Staffordshire. All the crew members were killed.
The crew members of NF908 were:
Flying Officer Walter Vernon Wilfred Allamby (428516) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Geoffrey James Dunbar (424391) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Richard Emonson (430484) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Norman Lees (2218806) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Lieutenant Jack Ivan Pritchard (421047) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Cleveland Charles Watson (434547) (Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Thomas Edward Harold Wright (430728) (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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/33/276
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line