Evans Head War Cemetery
Established in 1941, the Evans Head War Cemetery is the only official Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery on the North Coast of NSW. A resting place for 25 RAAF Service Personnel from the nearby RAAF World War II Empire Air Training Scheme Station, many were killed in training accidents.

11 September 1944 AVRON ANSON LT 781 crashed into an unoccupied home in residential Glen Innes and burst into flames killing all five on board instantly. An internal RAAF telegram states: “Further investigation reveals that apparently aircraft struck shed whilst low flying disintegrated caught fire and burnt dwelling house into which it crashed. Disobedience of orders”.
Onboard were:
Leading Aircraftman Roy Cecil EDWARDS, 23, a trainee navigator. He had been an engineer and member of the Institution of Automotive Engineers before the War. He was unmarried and had lived in Toowoomba.
Leading Aircraftman William John ERVIN, 29, was a trainee navigator. Prior to military service Ervin had been a farmer/grazier from Trundle, NSW. Married to Mabel Clarice Ervin of Kirribilli NSW they had a son less than a year old. Ervin’s wife wrote to the Secretary of Air two months after the crash: “I haven’t a good recent photograph of him, or even a snap of him in uniform….My son is only a year old now, so will not remember his father, and it is for him, as he grows up that I want this photo so much”.
Sergeant Joan Mary McCORMACK, a WAAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Australian Airforce), 22, telegraphist with No.1 Air Observer’s School at Evans Head was a passenger. She was married to John Strachan McCormack of Toorak, Victoria but originally came from Neutral Bay in Sydney where she had been a clerk before the War.
Flight Sergeant James Ian Brisbane NOBLE, 30 years, was the pilot of Avro Anson LT 781 when it crashed during a ‘non-operational navigation training exercise’ to Narrabri and North Burke. Noble lived in Inverell and was married to Lottie Ethel Rose Noble. They had two sons.
Pilot Officer William Henry OSBORNE, 22, was a Wireless Operator. He was married to Frances Jean Osborne, and came from Wollongong where he had been a butcher.
22 May 1944 AVRON ANSON A4-20 crashed near Knockrow at 0917hrs, 10 miles north of Ballina. The aircraft was on a return flight to Evans Head from Brisbane on an air navigation exercise. “…without warning, the plane suddenly began to disintegrate, losing a wing and a tail…before plunging with great ferocity to the ground….”
It appears two crew members attempted to jump with a parachute: “their bodies were found in trees with parachutes not fully opened”.
Onboard were:
Warrant Officer Edmund James Kiely AHERN, 26, a Wireless Air Gunner, had visited family in Brisbane overnight before returning to Evans Head the next morning. Ahern was single and on staff of the Public Curator’s Office Brisbane pre-RAAF.
Sergeant Gordon HILL, 21, trainee navigator – an only son.
Flight Lieutenant Ernest Allan SHACKELL, 29, with more than 1800 hours flying experience. He was unmarried from Brisbane.
Flying Officer Trevor Llewellyn WOODGATE, 26, navigation instructor, had arrived unexpectedly in Brisbane the day before and stayed overnight with his “young wife and infant son of twelve weeks” before the return flight to Evans Head. Woodgate had married after active service in Darwin the previous year.
7 March 1944 Avro Anson AW485 crashed near Maclean south of Evans Head while on a training exercise. It “got into some terribly turbulent clouds in the middle of summer and the tail was broken off the plane. The aircraft then went into a flat spin and the five occupants were killed.”
Flight Sergeant DUCKWORTH, 21, a Wireless-Air Gunner (WAG) had more than 600 hours flying time. He saw active service in 36 Squadron in Australia, Milne Bay, Port Moresby and Goodenough Island. Duckworth was engaged to be married.
Leading Aircraftman Patrick John SCANLAN, 28, trainee navigator, married, came from Brisbane. Prior to military service he had been a police constable.
Leading Aircraftman Neville Thomas SELF, 19, trainee navigator, from Paddington in Sydney was an accounting student prior to joining the RAAF. He enlisted on 24 April 1943.
Leading Aircraftman Robert ‘Bob’ Thomas ROBERTSON, 18, trainee navigator from Enfield Sydney, worked for Willcox Mofflin Ltd, wool, hide and skin merchants prior to enlistment.
Flying Officer Billie STRIKE-McCLELLAND, 22. His wife writes: “ [he] received a typical military funeral. I did not attend as I was nursing a 4 month old baby [John]. I understand my husband was very popular at the Base. I went to Evans Head in 1984 (from USA) and met a number of people at the RSL Club who knew my late husband and remembered him very well. It was a most enjoyable and heart-warming experience.” Billie’s son John from California visited his father’s grave in 2010.
14 February 1943 Fairey Battle V1232 plunged to the ground from 500 feet one mile north-east of Evans Head. The tail section of the aircraft was caught up in the towing wires of the target drogue during a ground-to-air firing practice exercise when the plane made a sharp right hand turn.
Onboard were:
Leading Aircraftman Neil James Herbert CAMPBELL, 20, drogue operator, was single and came from North Queensland.
Pilot Officer Maxwell Albert TAIT, 20, had more than 300 hours flying experience.

10 November 1944 Beaufighter A19-36 collided with Beaufighter A19-194 and crashed into the sea 14 miles south of Evans Head. The Beaufighters were two of seven which had just completed a successful simulated low level attack on the Evans Head airfield and were forming up before heading back to No. 5 Operational Training Unit at Willlamtown. The crews of both aircraft were killed and their bodies recovered by the RAAF’s Marine Section crash launch.
Onboard were:
Flying Officer Norman Lewis PARKER, 26, was married to WAAAF Freda Parker (nee Christie) in January, had been a commercial traveller in West Australia before joining up.
Sergeant Neville Martin TYACK, 19, navigator, was a bank clerk when he joined the RAAF.
Flight Lieutenant Arthur George HODGES, 28, navigator wireless operator was from Casino, NSW.
Pilot Flight Lieutenant Arthur Curlewis YOUNG, DFC, was also killed but is not buried at Evans Head.
7 June 1943 Fairey Battle L5650 on a “free gun under tail gunnery exercise” collided with the gunnery Fairey Battle L4941 at 2,500 feet and crashed into a heavily wooded area south of the southern Bombing Range near “Wooded Bluff” [Woody Head].
Leading Aircraftman Cosmo Louis MOONEY, 27, drogue operator, was a last minute replacement for another airman.
Sergeant George William FINCH, 24, with 225 hours of flying experience was from South Australia.
14 January 1944 unauthorized “shooting up” accident in Fairey Battle L5094 on the South Range at Evans Head when the wing of the plane “struck range control shed, crashed and burnt”.
Leading Aircraftman George Herbert HARRISON, 29, Trainee Air Observer, from Wahroonga, was a clerk in the NSW Premier McKell’s Office before joining the RAAF.
Sergeant William Wallace HOPPER, 21, a pilot who had more than 200 hours flying experience.
Leading Aircraftman Dudley Frank GRIMSEY, 18, had successfully completed his Air Observers course the month before his death. Grimsey was studying accountancy part-time when he joined up for service.
Flight Sergeant Ronald John Bowen TINDALL, 28, reported to School Sick Quarters on 3 July 1943 and was admitted immediately. At first they thought he had acute influenza but he deteriorated quickly and septicaemia [serious life-threatening bacterial infection] was diagnosed. He died at 8:40pm on 5 July. He was single and a shop assistant before joining up.
Four men were buried outside the War Cemetery – three for unknown reasons:
Flight Lieutenant Reverend Cornelius FOLEY, 57, part-time chaplain to No. 1 Bombing and Gunnery School died on 14 July 1942 at 0600 at Coraki Hospital from stomach cancer. Several reports indicate “he devoted much of his time and energy to the Welfare of the men”. Foley was married with four children. Despite a number of attempts for him to be interred in the War Cemetery, that request was refused.
Leading Aircraftman Murray HORWOOD, 23, drowned 9 March 1941 the day after he arrived at Evans Head as a trainee. Horwood and seven others went to surf at Airforce Beach at 10.45am and were caught in a strong undertow in dangerous surf conditions which swept them several hundred yards out to sea. Five reached the beach unaided. Two were helped back to the beach but Horwood, an athlete, disappeared. Planes searched and the Evans Head Surf Live-Saving Club manned a surf boat but he wasn’t found. At 5:30 pm his body was spotted in the breakers half a mile from where he had entered the water. Horwood, a storeman and acting fireman from Adelaide, was single.
Leading Aircraftman Class 1 Gordon Wellington REES, 19 years, died of pneumonia on 9 July 1941. Rees rescued several drowning people from the main surfing beach at Evans Head. Rees inhaled water during the rescue and succumbed several weeks later to respiratory infection. Single, he was a farmhand prior to enlistment. A street is named after him in Kempsey.
Leading Aircraftman Ivan ‘Tich’ STEWART, 20, assistant cook and drummer in the Station band died of death adder bite on 30 September 1942. According to a witness account Stewart saw the snake on a sand track leading to Airforce Beach and picked it up to throw it into the bush believing it to be dead. The snake caused three punctures in his fingers. He then went for a swim. At the inquest into his death it was stated that he had “scoffed” at the idea of hospital treatment. Stewart had a full funeral with coffin on a gun carriage with flag and his drum on top. The band played the Dead March. “Everyone was crying. It was so sad”. His wife Eunice was from Brisbane.
