LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Clarence Melville LEESUE
Service No: 417649
Born: Gladstone SA, 2 April 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 June 1942
Unit: No. 1 Operational Training Unit, RAAF Station East Sale VIC
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1 Operational Training Unit Beaufort aircraft A9-352), King Island TAS, 11 July 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Currie Park Cemetery, King Island TAS
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James Patrick and Martha Ellen Leesue; husband of Mabel Gwendoline Leesue, of Broken Hill, New South Wales.
Roll of Honour: Gladstone SA
Remembered: Panel 112, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
At 0200 hours on 11 July 1943, Beaufort A9-352 crashed 2 kms east of Currie Airfield while on approach to land. The crew members of A9-352 who were all killed were:
Pilot Officer Neville William Allan Edwards (401747) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer John Alexander Kildea (418850) (Observer)
Pilot Officer Clarence Melville Leesue (417649) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Harold Roy Snell (421408) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9845, 254
Bibliography:
Lax, M. (Mark) (editor) Always Ready: a history of RAAF East Sale, RAAF Publications Unit Melbourne VIC, 1993
Wilson, S. (Stewart) Beaufort, Beaufighter and Mosquito in Australian Service, Aerospace Publications Weston Creek ACT 2611, 1990