Portrait of Ian Thomas Lawler Ray

Studio portrait of Private Ian Thomas Lawler Ray of Ainslie, ACT, born Canterbury, Victoria, on 25 January 1926. A public servant with the Department of Treasury, Ray enlisted on 6 May 1944 with 2/31 Battalion and was assigned service number NX203686. After training, Private Ray landed at Balikpapan with his battalion and was wounded in action in July 1945. He was evacuated from Morotai by a 38 Squadron RAAF Dakota (A65-61) along with 28 other wounded Australians, nurses and other military personnel on 18 September 1945. The plane never arrived at its destination and Ray was posted as missing. The wreckage was finally located in April 1967 in a ravine at a height of over four thousand metres near the top of the Carstenz Range in West Irian (Irian Jaya). Efforts were made by the RAAF to recover the remains in two expeditions in December 1970 and February 1971, but the extreme terrain and weather conditions prevented any recovery. A further expedition (code named 'Exercise Dakota Recovery') was mounted from 23 May to 6 June 2005, as a joint exercise between the RAAF and Indonesian Air Force, this time proving more successful. Ian Ray's body was located and formally identified; his remains were interred at Bomana War Cemetery, Port Moresby together with the other personnel who had died in the crash. A number of items held by the Memorial are amongst the personal effects recovered from the crash site in 2005.