Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Squadron Leader Roger Sidney Choate OBE (Service Nos:300291(R291)/051846(3102) initially served in the Militia as Trooper with 10th Light Horse Regiment (Harvey) before enlisting in the RAAF Reserves on 29 August 1936 as an Aircraftman II - mustered as W/T Operator. ACII Choate was attached to 14 Squadron at Discharge on 1 November 1939. Squadron Leader Choate re enlisted in the RAAF, serving from 23 August 1941 to 12 January 1947. In 1942, then Pilot Officer Choate was involved in the installation and command of the radar on the roof of Shepherd's Hill RAAF Radar Site - the first operational air warninf radar.

Roger was born in Queenstown, County Cork in Ireland in 1913, eldest of two children of Sidney Walter Choate (b1881 in Buckinghamshire, England) and Violet Audrey Jean Gardiner (b1889 in Kent, England). Sidney (a Soldier) and Violet (a Launderess) married in 1910 in Essex, and lived in England, Ireland and Gibraltar - Sidney had enlisted in the Army in 1900 as a Gunner, served in WWI  and was a Captain based at HQ Military Command Gibraltar in 1921 when he resigned his Commission. Sidney and Violet immigrated in 1922, arriving with their two sons in Fremantle on board the Barrabool. Sidney and Violet settled in Perth, where they raised their family and Sidney was a Civil Engineer with the Water Supply Department.

On finisihing school, Roger worked in Harvey as a Diesel Engine Driver with Harvey Electric Supply and served eighteen months as a Trooper in the Militia with the 10th Light Horse Regiment. By 1936 he was an Electrician and Driver at Ora Banda Mine via Kalgoorlie, and then a Radio Engineer with the Postmaster Generals Department at Grants Patch via Kalgoorlie. In 1939 in Perth, Roger married Patricia Iris Mansbridge (b1916 in Johannesburg, South Africa) - Patricia had arrived with her parents and siblings in Fremantle in 1935 on board the Themistocles. Following his Discharge from the RAAF, Roger and Patricia settled in Perth, where they raised their family and Roger worked as a Civil Servant - from the late 1940s as an Aircraft Surveyor (Radio) with the Directorate of Air Navigation and Safety, In 1964, when he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military, RAAF Post War Honours List), Roger was Deputy Commanding Officer and Chief Instructor of No 25 City of Perth (Auxiliary) Squadron. In 1977 when he retired, Roger was Sectional Air Worthiness Surveyor with the Department of Transport (WA Region). Roger died in 1978 and Patricia in 2003.