Almanac Life: An ANZAC Day Memory – Lest We Forget

 

 

In 2018 I was very privileged to attend the ANZAC Day ceremonies in Mt Gambier South Australia with my partner Lorelle Abbott and her brother, including a special commemoration service for four airmen who formed the crew of a Beaufort bomber which crashed near Mt Gambier during WW2.  The crew were stationed at a nearby RAAF training facility.

 

One of these airmen was RAAF Leading Aircraft Man Geoffrey David Abbott (20) a direct relative of Lorelle’s who she discovered while undertaking family genealogy research.  Her research unearthed the family connection when she discovered an article written by the then Mt Gambier RSL President Bob Sandow about Sergeant Abbott’s death and the later deaths of his three bomber colleagues. The cause of Sergeant Abbott’s death was not known for six decades until extensive research by Bob Sandow revealed the circumstances.

 

Sergeant Abbott died on 27 May, 1943 while engaged on a navigation training exercise. The pilot of the Beaufort bomber fell ill during the exercise and warned the crew to be prepared to bail out. Apparently and unfortunately, Sergeant Abbott misunderstood the instructions and bailed out early. His parachute drifted out to sea approximately 2.5 km from the coast and he drowned.

 

Sergeant Abbott is buried in a specially reserved RAAF war graves section at the Lake Terrace East Cemetery with his three other air force bomber colleagues, RAAF Flying Officer J T Walton (21), Flight Sergeant R J Eaton (20) and Flight Sergeant Henry ‘Mick’ Lord (28), all who died two years after Sergeant Abbott on 27 August 1945, when their aircraft crashed at Puralka, VIC shortly after take-off from Mt Gambier.

 

Sergeant Abbott’s burial was the first in the Mt Gambier war cemetery. This specially reserved burial site was supported with funding from the Australian War Graves Commission and the Mt Gambier City Council and is maintained by the children of Moorak Primary School. The children do an absolutely wonderful job of keeping it in pristine condition throughout the year. Through a partnership with the Mt Gambier RSL there are four primary schools in Mt Gambier that maintain service burial sites in the town with the Moorak school taking on responsibility for the RAAF site.

 

 

Moorak Primary School students at Sergeant Abbott’s grave.

 

Over the years Sergeant Abbott and his three crew mates had been remembered and honoured on ANZAC Day through arrangements led by former WW2 Spitfire pilot Charlie Miller OAM.

 

 

Russell and Lorelle Abbott with Charlie Miller at the Mount Gambier RSL Club

 

 

When we met up with Charlie, he was an incredibly sprightly, fit and vital 94 years, and was reputedly the last remaining Spitfire pilot of WW2.  Over a beer at the RSL Club Charlie said to me: ‘If there any others, I would like to hear from them!’.

 

At the time Charlie was one of three remaining WW2 veterans in Mt Gambier all aged in their mid 90s. All three were celebrated and remembered at the local RSL club at the conclusion of ANZAC Day services.

 

During a sentimental service at the war cemetery the following words of Charlie’s resonated with us:

 

‘The tragedy to me is that those four young men in the prime of their lives lost their lives and lost the ability and joy of living lives that we live today. I have had a very happy, exciting life, but their lives were cut short. They were all my age at the time, all aircraft men and women and they have missed out on having wonderful lives.’

 

 

Charlie Miller and the Moorak Primary School students with Russell and Lorelle Abbott

 

 

Sadly, Charlie passed away in 2020 aged 96. He has been memorialised with a garden named after him at the Moorak Primary School. The garden, the brain child of teacher Pennie Paltridge, came together with the assistance of donations from the community, local businesses and school staff. The students have planted shrubs and decorated the garden with artworks reflecting their memory of Charlie and the messages he delivered when he spoke to them and answered their queries about the war and his military service. The Abbott family donated a bench seat for the garden in memory of Sergeant Geoffrey Abbott.

 

Charlie’s grave at the war cemetery continues to be tended to by the students of Moorak Primary School.

 

Typical of all RSL Auxiliary Ladies Committees across the country, the Mt Gambier RSL Auxiliary ladies did themselves proud with wonderful catering on the day.

 

I’ll finish this piece with words from one of the students of Moorak Primary School who laid a wreath in memory of the fallen airmen:

 

‘It is a good experience to be involved with the RSL and be part of the ANZAC Day service. We have learnt a lot about the war and how the soldiers fought for our country.’

 

Postscript:

 

By way of interest, Sergeant Abbott, as is Lorelle and family, is directly related to William Henry Abbott and the Tasmanian Abbott family that moved from Ballarat to Launceston in the mid to late 1800s.  William Henry Abbott was a brewer and owned the former Phoenix and Cornwall breweries in Launceston. William became the Chief Brewer (and first) of Boag’s Beer for James Boag when ‘Boag’s’ was originally formed. He later left Boag’s to assist his wife in her Abbott’s Cordial enterprise (termed then as an ‘aerated water factory’) in Launceston. Abbott’s Cordials went on to become hugely popular, especially throughout Northern Tasmania. The writer of this piece remembers growing up drinking it.

 

 

 

An Abbott’s soda fountain and cordial bottle from yesteryear (NB: In my day Tasmanians called softdrinks ‘cordial’, even Coke and Fanta).

 

 

To read more by Allan Barden click Here.

 

 

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