LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Graham PURVIS
Service No: 408408
Born: Hobart TAS, 16 June 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 23 April 1942
Unit: No. 115 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Witchford
Died: Air Operations (No. 115 Squadron Lancaster aircraft HK624), Germany, 27 November 1944, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Stewart Purvis and Hylda Purvis; husband of Jessie Purvis, of Busselton, Western Australia
Roll of Honour: Bellerive TAS
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1226 hours on the 27 November 1944 Lancaster HK624 took off from Witchford detailed to bomb Cologne, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft crashed into the Danzigel-Strasse at Cologne-Mulheim and all the crew members were killed. The aircraft exploded in the air and wreckage was spread over a wide area of the town and over the river Rhine.
The crew members of HK624 were:
Flight Sergeant Robert Hogben (1394176) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Daniel John Hutchinson (1825513) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Eric Ingham (150115) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Terence Leveritt (2211822) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flying Officer Leslie Edward Light (157334) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Henry McPake (1825964) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Graham Purvis (408408) (Second Pilot)
Flying Officer Henry Milton Pope (J/36085) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Eric Spotswood (1522033) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
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, 166/33/259