Max William SMITH

Max William SMITH Update Details

If you confirm that you want to proceed with the update, this record will be locked for editing by all other users until you have finished. You will have 7 days to complete your changes before they will be automatically submitted.

Do you want to proceed?

SMITH, Max William

Service Number:	143167
Enlisted:	6 July 1943
Last Rank:	Leading Aircraftman
Last Unit:	RAAF Telecommunications and Communications Units
Born:	Ulverstone, Tasmania, Australia, 12 June 1925
Home Town:	Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Press Hand
Died:	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 November 1986, aged 61 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Not yet discovered
Memorials:

World War 2 Service

6 Jul 1943:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Leading Aircraftman, 143167, RAAF Telecommunications and Communications Units
8 May 1946:	Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Leading Aircraftman, 143167, RAAF Telecommunications and Communications Units

Help us honour Max William Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Leading Aircraftman Max William Smith (Service No:143167) enlisted in the RAAF at No 1 Recruiting Centre Melbourne as an Aircraftman 1 - mustered as Trainee Technical, re mustered as Storehand and then as Meteorologial Charter. ACI Smith was attached to 7 Aircraft Depot (AD) Tocumwal, and promoted to Leading Aircraftman on 12 February 1945, he served in New Guinea from 15 December 1945 to 24 January 1946. LAC Smith served with 37 Squadron in 1946, and was attached to 1 Communications Unit at Discharge on 8 May 1946. In 1951 his application for re enlistment in the RAAF was unsuccesful. LAC Smith was the youngest of seven siblings - Reg, Len, Jack, Allan, Ron and Lyle - who served in WWII.

Max was born in Ulverstone, Tasmania in 1925, eleventh of thirteen children of Percy William Smith (b1884 in Morven, Tasmania) and Florence Louisa Hampton (b1883 in George Town, Tasmania). Percy (a Blacksmith) and Florence married in 1913 in Ulverstone, where they settled and raised their family and Percy worked as a Blacksmith and Labourer - Percy served in the AIF in 1917/1918 (Private; Service No:8057). In the 1920s Percy and Florence moved their family to Victoria, where they settled in Melbourne and Percy worked as a Labourer and Motor Driver.

Max was working in Melbourne as a Press Hand for Benco Pty Ltd when he enlisted in the RAAF in 1943. Following his Discharge in 1946, he worked in Melbourne as a Gardener and Mechanic before applying for re-enlistment in the RAAF in 1951. Max was unsuccesful (he had numerous run-ins with the law, including for playing Two Up), and worked in Melbourne as a Labourer. Max died in 1986.

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia