The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (404606) Warrant Officer George Albert Harris, No. 1657 Conversion Unit, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (404606) Warrant Officer George Albert Harris, No. 1657 Conversion Unit, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

404606 Warrant Officer George Albert Harris, No. 1657 Conversion Unit, Royal Air Force
Accidentally killed 22 October 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 27 July 2016

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer George Albert Harris, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in the Sydney seaside suburb of Bondi on 7 November 1915, George Harris was the son of Thomas Burroughs Harris and Florence Harris. He had two sisters, Frances Anne Horley and Josephine Louise Macnaughtan. His family resided in Cowra, New South Wales, and he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 11 October 1940.

Harris began training as a pilot, and before long embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

On arriving in Britain Harris undertook further specialist training, while posted to No. 1657 Conversion Unit of the Royal Air Force.

On 22 October 1943 Harris and his crew were on a special night-time navigational training exercise in a four-engine Short Stirling heavy bomber. After taking off from RAF station Stradishall, weather conditions turned poor. Harris’s Stirling appeared to have a mechanical problem, requiring it to land with just three engines at Chipping Warden. It is thought that the crew mistook the airfield’s perimeter track for the runway, and the aircraft clipped a tree and the roofs of two houses in the nearby village of Aston le Walls, before crashing on the north side of Chipping Warden aerodrome.

Among the crew of seven, Harris and fellow Australian Flight Sergeant Gregory Terence Duane died as a result of the accident, as did their Canadian and British crewmates. One Australian and one British crewmate survived the crash.

Warrant Officer George Harris was 27 years old. He is buried in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery for RAF crew at Oxford Botley in England.

Warrant Officer Harris’ name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Warrant Officer George Albert Harris, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section