LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Geoffrey William SCHAFFER
Service No: 400837
Born: Waverley NSW, 19 January 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1940 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: Air Defence Headquarters, Sydney NSW
Died: Aircraft Accident (RNAS Sea Fire aircraft PR228), near Barnawartha VIC, 8 August 1945, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Benalla War Cemetery, Victoria
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Ernest Joseph and Ann Florence Schaffer; husband of Lois Nancy Schaffer, of Upper Hawthorn
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 97, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 8 August 1945, Sea Fire PR228 flown by Flight Lieutenant Schaffer was returning from drop tank trials at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, when it presumably hit a hill in bad weather conditions at Barnawartha, Victoria, and he was killed. Flight Lieutenant Schaffer was Senior Test Pilot at RNAS Bankstown and had been posted to the Air Defence Unit at Sydney for duty with the Royal Naval Air Service at Bankstown.
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, 163/160/168