Alwyn Ernest (Ern) PRITCHARD

PRITCHARD, Alwyn Ernest

Service Number: 428355
Enlisted: 20 June 1942
Last Rank: Flight Lieutenant
Last Unit: No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora
Born: Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia, 26 May 1918
Home Town: Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria
Schooling: Melbourne High School, Victoria, Australia
Occupation: Surveyor
Died: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1 July 1980, aged 62 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

20 Jun 1942: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Lieutenant, 428355
26 Aug 1943: Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Pilot Officer
5 Feb 1944: Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora
7 Dec 1944: Wounded Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, 428355, No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora, seriously wounded in aircraft accident near Temora NSW; aircraft Ai2888, forced landing
26 Aug 1945: Promoted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Lieutenant, No. 10 Elementary Flying Training School, Temora
14 Sep 1945: Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Lieutenant, 428355

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Flight Lieutenant Alwyn Ernest Pritchard (Service No:428355) enlisted in the RAAF at No 1 Recruiting Centre Melbourne on 10 October 1942 as an Aircraftman II - mustered as Air Crew. ACII Pritchard was commissioned on 26 August 1943, and was a Flying Instructor attached to No 11 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) Benalla - Tiger Moth, Avro Anson, Avro Trainer, and Air Speed Oxford Aircraft. On 7 December 1944, as Flying Officer attached to No 10 Elementary Flying School (EFTS) Temora, he was seriously injured when aircraft Ai2888 crashed in a forced landing near Temora. Flight Lieutenant Pritchard's commission was terminated on 14 September 1945.

Ern was born at Dunkeld, Victoria in 1918, youngest of five children (and only son) of Ernest William Pritchard (b1879 in Melbourne, Victoria) and his first wife Evaline White (b1880 in Melbourne, Victoria). Ernest (a Teacher) and Evaline (a Pupil Teacher) married in Melbourne in 1901 and lived in Melbourne, Wangaratta, Dockers Plains and Dimboola, where they raised their family and Ernest was a Teacher and then Headmaster. In the late 1930s the family moved to Melbourne, where Evaline died in 1939. Ernest remarried in 1941 to Eveline Viola Schurmann (b1894 in Natimuk, Victoria) - Eveline was a Teacher in Melbourne.

Ern started work as a Pupil Surveyor/Draftsman and was a Member of the Caulfield Tennis Club in Melbourne where, in 1940 he married Mary Winifred Calixtus Purcell (b1918 in Albany, Western Australia). Following his Discharge from the RAAF, Ern and Mary lived in Melbourne and Bendigo, where they raised their family and Ern was a Surveyor until his death in 1980. Mary died in 2012. 

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