Henry Bert (Harry) CROCKER

Henry Bert (Harry) CROCKER Update Details

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CROCKER, Henry Bert

Service Numbers:	S25848, 407941
Enlisted:	3 September 1939, Date and unit on enlistment unknown
Last Rank:	Airman Pilot
Last Unit:	No. 610 'County of Chester' Squadron (RAF)
Born:	North Adelaide, South Australia, 3 September 1919
Home Town:	Barmera, Berri and Barmera, South Australia
Schooling:	Barmera Primary School, South Australia
Occupation:	Horticulturalist
Died:	Accidental, Catfield, Norfolk, England, 19 May 1942, aged 22 years
Cemetery:	Scottow Cemetery, Scottow, Norfolk, England
Memorials:	Adelaide WW2 Wall of Remembrance, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Barmera Memorial Gates

World War 2 Service

3 Sep 1939:	Enlisted Private, S25848, Date and unit on enlistment unknown
3 Feb 1941:	Enlisted Aircraftman, 407941, Aircrew Training Units, Adelaide
3 Feb 1941:	Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant, 407941
4 Feb 1941:	Involvement Sergeant, 407941, Aircrew Training Units, Empire Air Training Scheme
16 Dec 1941:	Embarked Royal Australian Air Force, Sergeant, 407941, embarked Sydney via Canada for UK
3 Mar 1942:	Transferred Royal Australian Air Force, Airman Pilot, No. 610 'County of Chester' Squadron (RAF)
Date unknown:	Enlisted S25848
Date unknown:	Involvement

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Sergeant (Airman Pilot) Henry Bert Crocker (Service No:407941) first served in the Militia (Service No:306656; 24 January 1939) and ACMF (Service No:S25848; 28 February 1940) with 48th Battalion Barmera and was a Lance Corporal when he Discharged to enlist in the RAAF at No 5 Recruiting Centre Adelaide on 3 February 1941 as an Aircraftman II. By March that year he was a Leading Aircraftman, and on 16 December 1941 when he embarked from Sydney for England via Canade, he was a Sergeant - mustered as Airman Pilot. Sergeantt Crocker trained as a Spitfire Pilot at No 53 Operational Base Unit (OBU) in Llandow, Wales and was attached to 610 'County of Cheshire' Squadron RAF on 3 March 1942. Sergeant Crocker was killed when the Spitfire VbAD512 he was piloting was involved in a mid air collision on 19 May 1942 at Catfield (north of Ludham) in Norfolk.

Harry was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1919, eldest of two children of Edward Henry Crocker (b1878 in Pekina, South Australia) and his second wife Annie Elizabeth Munks (b1880 in Adelaide, South Australia). Edward (a Farm Overseer) and Annie married in Adelaide in 1919 and settled in Barmera where they raised their family and Edward was a Horticulturalist. Edward had worked from the late 1890s in Western Australia - Kalgoorlie, Bunbury, Harvey, Dowerin and Beverley - as a Miner, Farm Labourer and Farm Manager, returning to South Australia following his Divorce from his first wife in 1916.

Harry worked in Barmera as an Assistant Horticulturalist for his father prior to enlisting for service in WWII.

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