LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Geoffrey Harold WADDELL
Service No: 413805
Born: Singleton NSW, 20 May 1910
Enlisted in the RAAF: 13 September 1941
Unit: No. 172 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Chivenor
Died: Aircraft Accident: (No. 172 Squadron Wellington aircraft MP507), Atlantic Ocean, 19 September 1943, Aged 33 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Harold Henry and Bessie Waddell; husband of Marjorie Lillian Waddell, of Burwood, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Maryborough QLD
Remembered: Panel 190, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Commonwealth Bank of Australia Honour Rolls, Sydney NSW
On 19 September 1943Wellington MP507 took off from Chivenor on a night training flight navigational exercise. The route was from Base – Newquay – then due west to 12.00W – south to latitude of Scilly Isles – then return to Base. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it did not return to base. The flight was the final training exercise before becoming a fully operational crew. In 1949 it was recorded that the missing crew members had no known graves.
The crew members of MP507 were:
Sergeant Jack Stanley Broad (1391508) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant John Milligan (1532397) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Horace George Paskey (118099) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Keith Alastair Shrewsbury (1335058) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
Flying Officer Geoffrey Harold Waddell (413805) (Navigator)
Sergeant Charles Westwood (1532583) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/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, 166/43/247
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line