The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (427420) Flying Officer Douglas Bruce Jeffery, No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian 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 (427420) Flying Officer Douglas Bruce Jeffery, No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

427420 Flying Officer Douglas Bruce Jeffery, No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
KIA 21 July 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer Douglas Bruce Jeffery.

Douglas Jeffery was born on 12 November 1923 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, the son of Arnold and Alice Jeffery. He had a brother, Ian, and a sister, Jean, who died when she was only two years old. His father was a bank clerk and shop manager, who had served in the First World War in France with the 24th Battalion, before being medically discharged in April 1918.
Douglas was educated at Scotch College in Melbourne and then attended Geelong College, where he was a bright student, coming third in his class.

After leaving school Douglas found work as a clerk with the National Bank of Australasia. By now the family was living in Burnside in South Australia. Douglas Jeffery enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force at Adelaide in December 1941.

He later embarked for the United Kingdom, where he underwent further pilot training. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme Jeffery was one of almost 27,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who joined Australian and British squadrons in Britain throughout the course of the war.

Jeffery joined No. 467 Squadron, RAAF, which, as part of Bomber Command, flew the four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

Shortly before 11.30 pm on the night of 20 July 1944, Jeffery and his crew set off from Waddington, England, as part of a major raid on the railway centre of Courtrai in Belgium. The squadron committed 14 aircraft to the mission. Flying Officer Jeffery was the pilot of Lancaster “PO-J”. Although the raid was ultimately a success, No. 467 Squadron lost two crews. One of them was Jeffery’s. His aircraft failed to return to base, and it was later determined to have been hit by enemy fire.

After the war it was determined that the aircraft had crashed near Marke in the south-west outskirts of Coutrai. Also on board were Royal Air Force Warrant Officer John Ede, and Australian Flight Sergeants Alan Hartley, Maxwell Roy, Philip Benson, Albert Downie, and Thomas Roberts. There were no survivors.

After the war, the remains of Commonwealth servicemen buried in Europe were examined and identified where possible. While his crewmates had been buried at the Wevelgem Cemetery, Jeffery’s remains had been found crashed through the roof of a house in Courtrai, and was buried by the locals at the Courtrai St Jan Communal Cemetery.

A cigarette case bearing his initials was found on his body, and was sent home to his family. He was reinterred at Courtrai under the inscription: “Sic itur ad astra”, a Latin phrase meaning “Such is the pathway to the stars”.

He was 20 years old.

Flying Officer Douglas Jeffery’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 others from 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 Flying Officer Douglas Bruce Jeffery, and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section