LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant George Charles STARTIN
Service No: 414522
Born: Killarney QLD, 31 May 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 11 October 1941
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Skellingthorpe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LL744), North Sea, 23 May 1944, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of George Thomas Startin and Agnes Startin, of Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Kingaroy QLD
Remembered: Panel 256, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 130, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2210 hours on the night of 22 May 1944 Lancaster LL744 took off from Skellingthorpe to bomb Brunswick, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. The aircraft was lost in the North Sea and two bodies were later washed ashore on the Dutch Coast. In 1949 it was recorded that the remaining missing crew members had lost their lives at sea.
The crew members of LL744 were:
Sergeant Daniel Patrick Duggan (147796) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Eric Hopkinson (1590534) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Keith Gilbert Lawrence (575685) (RAF) (Air Bomber)
Pilot Officer Francis Malcolm Linton (J/86369) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant William Ernest McIlwaine (1796516) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant George Reid (1077588) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator/Air)
Flight Lieutenant George Charles Startin (414522) (Pilot)
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, 163/163 385