KAUFMAN, Keith Walter
| Service Number: | 257415 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 25 January 1943 |
| Last Rank: | Squadron Leader |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia, 4 March 1915 |
| Home Town: | Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Northcote High School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | ACI - Clerk (Cadetship) |
| Died: | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 17 March 1999, aged 84 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 25 Jan 1943: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Squadron Leader, 257415 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 1947: | Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Squadron Leader, 257415 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Squadron Leader Keith Walter Kaufman (Service Nos:257415/1689) first entered the RAAF on a cadetship at No 1 Flying Training School Point Cook. In May 1937 he was attached to No 214 Bomber Squadron, and served in England as a Pilot Officer at No 2 Flight Training School (Lincolnshire), HQ London Air Ministry, Canadian Squadron 142 and 460 Squadron. In 1940 as Squadron Leader, he was awarded the DFC and in November 1942 awarded a Bar to the DFC 'By his fearless determination and complete disregard to enemy opposition .... Kaufmann has set an inspiring example to his crew' (AWM). Squadron Leader Kaufmann was attached to 79 Wing HQ when he was Discharged on 10 October 1944.
Born in 1915 in Ascot Vale Victoria, Keith was the third of eight children (and one of six siblings who served in WWII) of Henry Kaufmann (b1884 in Box Hill, Victoria) and Mary Ann May Pigdon (b1892 in Queenscliff, Victoria). Henry was a Farmer when he enlisted for the Boer War (Trooper; Service No:867) and was a Clerk in 1911 when he and Mary married in Queenscliff, Victoria. Henry enlisted in WWI (Captain) and remained in the Army, serving in WWII as a Major (Service No:V159890). Henry died in 1944.
In 1939 in Norfolk, England Keith married Audrey Leader (b1919 in Suffolk, England). Keith 'left the Air Force in 1944 and went to Holimans (Australian National Airways), and three or four weeks later we were Captains ... by 1946 I'd had a gutfull of the whole thing and we went to Western Australia and bought a farm out there, right down near Albany - Bridgetown. ..... We came back to Brisbane and I was flying with the Department there for a while - they wouldn't accept me back in as a pilot - and I went to the Snowy Mountains Authority and flew Beavers around there, and then I went to Charters (Australian Air Charters at Moorabbin) - I did a bit of crop dusting. I was on the fringes of civil aviation at that time, and I couldn't get back in to big aircraft; having left them there was no way back..... Then when all that finished I did a trip over to England and I came home and I went to Kraft Foods and stayed there' (AWM; Interview by Laurence (Laurie) Field).
Audrey died in 1997 and Keith in 1999.
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