Sydney Wood SMITH

Sydney Wood SMITH Update Details

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SMITH, Sydney Wood

Service Number:	403961
Enlisted:	31 March 1941
Last Rank:	Flying Officer
Last Unit:	No. 228 Squadron (RAF)
Born:	Broken Hill, New South Wales, 4 February 1918
Home Town:	Summer Hill, Ashfield, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Clerk
Died:	Accidental (plane crash), Eagles Rock, Berriedale, Caithness, Scotland, Scotland, United Kingdom, 25 August 1942, aged 24 years
Cemetery:	Oban (Pennyfuir) Cemetery, Scotland Sec. I. Grave 21. , Oban (Pennyfuir) Cemetery, Oban, Scotland, United Kingdom
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

World War 2 Service

31 Mar 1941:	Enlisted Sydney, NSW
31 Mar 1941:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, 403961
25 Aug 1942:	Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Flying Officer, 403961, No. 228 Squadron (RAF)

Help us honour Sydney Wood Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon

He was 2nd Pilot serving with the Royal Australian Air Force based at Oban in Scotland during WWII. He was a member of the crew carrying H.R.H. The Duke of Kent, Prince George Edward Alexander Edmund, the youngest brother of reigning King George VI, to Iceland.

The Mark 3 Short Sunderland Flying Boat W4026, crashed about half an hour after take-off from Invergordon, Ross-Shire when it struck Eagle’s Rock in Caithness. All but one of those on board perished. A memorial cross was erected at the crash site on Eagle's Rock near Berriedale. The memorial itself is a tall, simple Celtic cross which stands in the remote foothills of the Scarabens, just north of the Berriedale River. It serves as the only tangible reminder of an unsolved World War Two mystery. Members of the royal family still visit Eagle's Rock from time to time. It has become a focal point for their grief. (King George VI had made his own special "pilgrimage" not long after the crash).

Mystery still surrounds the cause of the crash and it is subject to a conspiracy theory.

Son of John James Smith and Jessie Gertrude Smith; husband of Edith Mary Smith, of Epping, New South Wales, Australia.

INSCRIPTION on his wargrave reads:

IN SACRED AND LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF MY DEAR HUSBAND

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia