Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

One of three brothers who served in WWII, Leading Aircraftman Alexander Roy Aitken (Service No:80911) enlisted in the RAAF on 8 June 1942 at No 4 Recruiting Centre Parth as an Aircraftman I - mustered as Flight Mechanic, re mustered as Fitter. ACI Aitken was described as 'This man has a knack of handling men and gets things done' (NAA). Promoted to Leading Aircraftman on 24 September 1943, he served in Morotai, New Guinea (11 May 1945 - 10 October 1945) with 16 Aircraft Repair Depot, 9 and 5 Repair and Servicing Units, and 60 Operational Base Unit (OBU). LAC Aitken was attached to 60 OBU at Discharge on 14 January 1946. 

Born in Yarloop, Western Australia in 1914, Alex was fourth of six children of William Aitken (b1886 in Melbourne, Victoria) and Lilian Evelyn Marian McMillan (b1886 in Queensland). From the early 1900s, William was Farmer in Wagerup, where he and Lillian married in 1909. They lived in Wagerup unitl the early 1920s, when they moved their family to Pithara via Dalwalinu, where William was a Farmer.

Alex worked in the Pilbara as a Transport Driver at Bonnie Doone Mine in Bamboo Creek, and was a Miner in Meekatharra in 1934 when he married his first wife Louisa Western (b1915 in Goomalling, Western Australia) in Norseman - Alex and Louisa divorced in 1939. Alex was Shift Boss at Emu Gold Mine in Agnew via Leinster in 1941 when he married his second wife Mary Drummond (b1920 in Cottesloe, Fremantle, Western Australia) in Norseman. Alex enlisted in the RAAF in 1942, and following his Discharge, returned to the Mining Industry in Norseman, applying for a Gold Mining Lease in 1950. From the mid 1950s Alex and Mary  lived at Hines Hill via Northam and then Mt Kokeby via Beverley, where Alex was a Farmer. In the late 1950s the couple settled in Kelmscott, Canning where Alex worked as a Ganger (WAGR) until his death in 1964. Mary died in 2014.