LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant John Ruskin REID
Service No: 400261
Born: Williamstown VIC, 2 April 1909
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1940
Unit: No. 84 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Ground Operations: Java, 1 March 1942, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Chalmers Reid and Edith Hebdon Reid, of Monbulk, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Column 422, Singapore Memorial, Singapore
Remembered: Panel 129, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 1 March 1942, Flight Sergeant Reid an Air Gunner of No. 84 Squadron RAF was in a Mr Jackson’s house at Soebang. He left in a car accompanied by an RAF Sergeant and a Dutchman with the intention of returning to Kalidjati. The Japanese arrived a few minutes later and some firing was heard. The above group did not arrive at their destination of Kaladjati.
Sergeant George Windsor Sayer (400212) (Killed on Air Operations: 23 September 1942) stated that Reid drove from Mr Jackson’s house to the nearest garage for fuel. Japanese armoured cars approached the garage and Reid was seen to fall to the ground wounded. It was not noted at the time whether Sergeant Sayer was there at the time or his story was repeating hearsay.
Sergeant Reid was a regular member of Sergeant Noel Sherrin Geappen’s (408074) crew. Sergeant Geappen and crew were killed in the crash of a Blenheim aircraft on 16 February 1942 which had left Palembang to proceed to Bandoeng, Java. It encountered bad weather and was forced to return to Palembang, and crashed into the hillside at Lahat. At the time it was thought that Flight Sergeant Reid was in this aircraft but it was later established that Flight Sergeant Reid had travelled in another plane from Palembang which had been forced to return to Palembang.
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, 163/156/148; A705, 163/116/31