LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Francis Roy O’NEILL
Service No: 403830
Born: Scone NSW, 9 October 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 March 1941
Unit: Y Depot (RCAF)
Died: Naval Operations: North Atlantic, 12 January 1942, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Francis and Frances Jane O’Neill, of Scone, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Scone NSW
Remembered: Panel 111, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Scone War Memorial Olympic Swimming Pool and Stone Memorial, Scone NSW
Flying Officer O’Neill, an Observer trained at No. 1 Air Navigation School (RCAF), sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia for the UK as a passenger on the SS Yngaren. Flying Officer O’Neill was drowned when the ship was torpedoed and sunk at 0400 hours on 12 January 1942. SS Yngaren, a Swedish vessel, carried a crew of 34 and 6 passengers, of whom only two are known to have survived, a Dane and a Swede, who drifted for 30 days on a raft and ultimately landed at Greenock on 13 February 1942. In 1949 it was recorded that Flying Officer O’Neill had lost his life at sea.
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, 163/50/43
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line