LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Walter Edwin PERRIN
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 84646 (RAF)
Born: Launceston TAS, 3 November 1908
Enlisted in the RAAF: 1926
Enlisted in the RAF: Date unavailable
Unit: No. 455 Squadron, RAF Station Wigsley, Nottinghamshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 455 Squadron Hampden I aircraft P1156), English Channel area, 12 February 1942, Aged 33 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Rowland Arthur and Mary May Perrin, of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. B.Sc. (Melbourne).
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 66, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
On 12 February 1942, Hampden I P1156 took off from Wigsley at 1522 hours as one of nine No. 455 Squadron aircraft tasked to attack the three German capital ships – Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen – that had sailed from Brest, France and headed through the English Channel (Operation Fuller). P1156 was lost without trace.
The crew members of P1156 were:
Pilot Officer Alexander Richard Abbott (404522) (RNZAF) (Navigator)
Flight Lieutenant Walter Edwin Perrin (84646) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Flying Officer Edward Graham de Twenebroke Symons (84907) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Ralph Edward Tomlinson (1253789) (RAFVR) (Gunner)
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
Bibliography:
Gordon, I. (Ian) Strike and Strike Again: 455 Squadron 1944-5, Banner Books Belconnen ACT 2616, 1995
Lawson, John Horwood Wightman (251634) The Story of No. 455 Squadron (RAAF), Wilke and Company, Melbourne VIC, 1951