CROOKE, Malcolm George
| Service Number: | 143389 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 July 1943 |
| Last Rank: | Leading Aircraftman |
| Last Unit: | No. 31 Squadron (RAAF) |
| Born: | Prahran, Melbourne, Victoria, 20 October 1924 |
| Home Town: | Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Teacher |
| Died: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 February 2007, aged 82 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 15 Jul 1943: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Leading Aircraftman, 143389, No. 31 Squadron (RAAF) | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Sep 1945: | Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Leading Aircraftman, 143389, No. 31 Squadron (RAAF) |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Leading Aircraftman Malcolm Georges Crooke (Service No:143389) enlisted in the RAAF on 15 July 1943 and served as an aviation engineer in Borneo. LAC Crooke was attached to 31 Squadron when he was Discharged on 4 September 1945 - as a Teacher he was Discharged to return to Australia.
Born in 1924 in Melbourne Victoria, Mal was the youngest of five children of Robert James Crook (b1872 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria) and first wife Alice Louisa Georgette Legat (b1888 in Paris, France). Robert (a Teacher and Commercial Foreign Corresspondent) and Alice married in Paris in 1907. Robert had travelled to Paris in 1901, and worked there and in Spain as a Teacher and Commercial Foreigh Correspondent. In 1912 Robert, Alice and their two children moved to Melbourne, Victoria and then settled at Cockatoo in the Dandenong, Victoria where Robert was a Farmer. Alice was unable to adapt to life in the country or as a wife and mother, and left Robert with their five children to live in Melbourne, Victoria. By 1926 Robert had moved with the children to Melbourne, where he worked as a Teacher. He was a Salesman in 1932 when he divorced Alice, and by 1938 had remarried and moved to bendigo where he worked as a Teacher.
Before he enlisted, Mal's first teaching position was in Worth, Victoria where he was in charge of twelve students across eight year levels. He was in the RAAF in Sydney NSW at the Dominions' Service Mens' Club when he met Maude Evelyn Flegg (b1922 in Sydney, NSW) - Maude was a Volunteer at the Club. They married in December 1945 following Mal's return from War. Mal and Maude purchased a house at Ashburton in Melbourne, Victoria where they lived for over thirty years. Mal was a Head Teacher, and a swimming coach. Following Maude's death in 1987, Mal remarried. He died in 2007.
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