Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Cameron Charles McPherson B: 8th October 1919 (Millthorpe). D: 25th July 1942 (Crete).
Service No: 403873. Sergeant Cameron Charles McPherson. Enlisted in the RAAF, 4th March 1941. Unit No. 108 Squadron (RAF), and embarked Sydney on 22nd April 1941 for Canada and the United Kingdom. He died on 25th July 1942. Aged 22 years. Air Operations: (No. 108 Squadron Wellington aircraft HF844), central Mediterranean. Remembered: Column 266, Alamein Memorial, Egypt, and Panel 126, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

At 1750 hours on 25th July 1942 Wellington HF844 took off from Advanced Base IG86. It later took off from an Advanced Landing Ground at 2152 hours to carry out a night raid on Heraklion, Greece. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. The opposition encountered at Heraklion was fairly severe, Certain lights were reported by other aircraft as being green Verey lights fired up from the sea in a position 100 miles from the Egyptian coast and on trace. It was considered unlikely that it would be from a crew in a dinghy. Air Sea Rescue searches failed to find any trace of the missing aircraft or crew.

Cameron was a pupil of Maitland Boys High School, East Maitland over the period 1931-1936. He passed the Intermediate Certificate in 1933 with passes in Maths 1 and 2, English, French, History and Geography, but he failed Latin. He obtained his Leaving Certificate in 1935 with passes in the same subjects, and at the time of enlisting was working as a Clerk with the Registry of Co Operative Societies, 61 Hunter Street. He also had 3 years’ experience as Chief Projectionist at the Roxy Theatre, Springwood. He gave his home address as “The Ferns,” Bathurst Road, Springwood.