LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Francis Laurence PEPPER
Service No: 417881
Born: Adelaide SA, 12 January 1922
Enlisted in the RAAF: 18 July 1942
Unit: No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training School (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training School Sunderland aircraft W6009), Scotland, 14 January 1945, Aged 23 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Richard Laurence and Lelah Rosetta Pepper, of Wayville, South Australia.
Roll of Honour: Unley SA
Remembered: Panel 283, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
On the 14th January 1945, Sunderland W6009 took off from RAF Station Alness, Ross-Shire Scotland, on a non-operational armament training exercise. The aircraft crashed off shore near Ferrytown, Dornoch Firth, Scotland at 1340 hours.
The crew members of W6009 were:
Pilot Officer Ernest Neil Bugg (436397) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 13 December 1945
Flying Officer Alan Woodhouse Crompton (429929) (Pilot) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 12 December 1945
Flight Sergeant Edwin Evers (443289) (Air Gunner) Missing
Sergeant William James Wesley Freudenstein (33805) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 23 July 1945
Flight Sergeant John Jefferson Griffiths (423487) (Wireless Operator Air) Missing
Sergeant Charles Walter Laing (14626) (Flight Engineer) Killed
Flying Officer Raymond Thomas Marstella (405596) (Co-Pilot) Killed
Flight Sergeant Guy Neville McLeod (426656) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 10 December 1945
Flying Officer Francis Laurence Pepper (417881) (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Missing
Flight Sergeant Murray Clive Pryor (437444) Seriously Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 3 December 1945
Sergeant Robert Roger Waddell (441309) Seriously injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 October 1945
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, 166/32/61