LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Roy Hamilton GEDDES
Service No: 401939
Born: Parkes NSW, 23 October 1920
Enlisted in the RAAF: 26 April 1941 (at Melbourne VIC)
Unit: No. 10 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Melbourne, Yorkshire
Died: Air Operations: (No. 10 Squadron Halifax aircraft HE697), Netherlands, 29 June 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Gelderland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Hugh Stewart Geddes and Margaret Daisy Inglis Geddes, of Mildura, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Mildura VIC
Remembered: Panel 99, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Rathmines Memorial Bowling Club, Rathmines NSW
Pilot Officer Geddes’ name appears to have been incorrectly added to the Rathmines Memorial that remembers RAAF members lost on Maritime Units as he served with No. 10 Squadron RAF and not with No. 10 Squadron RAAF.
On the 29th June 1943, Halifax HE697 outbound to the target at Cologne was shot down by a night fighter and crashed between Limburg and Maastricht, Holland, and seven of the eight crew members were killed.
The crew members of HE697 were:
Sergeant Albert William Booth (1424526) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Reginald Eric Bradshaw (148755) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant David Brown (1386316) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Pilot Officer Herbert Ernest Cross (143801) (RAF) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Clifford Entwhistle (1113359) (RAFVR)
Pilot Officer Roy Hamilton Geddes (401939) (Pilot)
Sergeant Robert Shannon (411231) (Air Gunner) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 2 November 1945
Sergeant Robert Stirratt White (1388298) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
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, 166/15/67
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line
Bibliography:
Winter, V.A. (Vincent Adams) (408547) Noble Six Hundred: the story of the Empire Air Training Scheme with special reference to Australians who trained in Southern Rhodesia, V.A. Winter Brighton VIC 3186, 1982