LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Francis James Victor McGRATH
Service No: 415541
Born: Subiaco WA, 7 July 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1941
Unit: No. 54 Operational Training Unit RAF
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 54 Operational Training Unit Beaufighter aircraft T3381), Berwickshire, 19 September 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Thornaby-on-Tees Cemetery, Yorkshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Wilfred and Mary McGrath; husband of Joan Catherine McGrath, of Perth, Western Australia
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
On the 19th September 1943, Beaufighter T3381 crashed at night at Hardens Farm near Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland and the crew of two were killed. The aircraft was flying at 10,500 feet when the Pilot reported at 2109 hours that an engine or engines were on fire, and hat he was baling out. The aircraft hit the ground and exploded, the Pilot’s body being found 150 yards away and the body of the Navigator was found in the wrecked aircraft.
The crew members of T3381 were:
Flight Sergeant Francis James Victor McGrath (415541) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Edward John Stacey Williams (409952) (Navigator)
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, 166/26/251