SAWYER, Bailey Middlebrook
| Service Number: | 1704 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 1 July 1940, 1 Air Navigation Unit -Parkes |
| Last Rank: | Pilot Officer |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Washington DC, USA, 7 June 1906 |
| Home Town: | South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Merchant Marine School, USA |
| Occupation: | Oceanographer |
| Died: | Accidental (Plane crash), Lapstone, New South Wales, Australia, 28 January 1941, aged 34 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Panel 5 Cremated Rookwood - ashes scattered at sea, New South Wales Cremation Memorial, Rookwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Glenbrook Arvo Anson A4-5 Crash Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement Pilot Officer, 1704 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, 1704, 1 Air Navigation Unit -Parkes | |
| 28 Jan 1941: | Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, Pilot Officer, 1704, 1 Air Navigation Unit | |
| Date unknown: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Pilot Officer |
Help us honour Bailey Middlebrook Sawyer's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Elizabeth Allen
Bailey Middlebrook SAWYER was born on 7th June 1906 in Washington DC, USA
His parents were Wells Moses SAWYER & Kathleen Alton BAILEY
He married Norma Dorota FLATAU in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and she arrived with him in Australia on his boat "Henrietta" in 1939 - Norma was born in 1913 in South Yarra, Victoria to Reginald John FLATAU & Norma May MacMEIKAN - she died on 18th August, 1973 and is buried in the Newlands Station Cemetery
Bailey enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940 - he was a Pilot Officer with the 1 Air Navigation Unit in Parkes, NSW and was accidentally killed in Lapstone, NSW on 28th January, 1941 while in an Avro Anson A4-5 which crashed on a medical flight from Parkes to Mascot - All five airmen on board were killed
1. Pilot Officer John Ignatious NEWMAN (Pilot)
2. Flying Officer - Henry Theodore SKILLMAN (Navigator)
3. Aircraftman - Charles Richard TYSON (Wireless Operator)
4. Pilot Officer - Bailey Middlebrook SAWYER (Patient)
There is a memorial plaque in Clifton Avenue, Glenbrook in honour of these men who lost their lives & his name is memorialised on the Australian War Memorial & the Apsley Roll of Honour in Victoria
Bailey was cremated at Rookwood in Sydney and his ashes scattered over the wreck site of his boat "Henrietta" which had sunk on 28th September, 1940 at Point Cook in Victoria
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Bowen Independant (Qld) 7th Feb 1941 page 2
"The Henrietta"
Skipper meets death in Air Force
Pilot Officer, Bailey Middlebrook Sawyer, 34, married, who was killed in an RAAF machine crashed on January 28th, was an American who was sailing his yacht, Henrietta in Australian waters when war was declared, His points of call included Bowen
He enlisted in July and was posted to the General Reconnaissance School at Laverton for navigational duties. Later he did the navigation instructors course and in November was posted to Parkes as an Instructor
Some months ago he & several other Air Force Officers were on the Henrietta when the yacht ran aground off Point Cook.
Pilot Officer Sawyer spent two years at a merchant marine school for Officers in USA and one year on a specialist course in advanced navigation
He was the owner and master of the 100 ton schooner-yacht engaged in oceanographic survey & general research
he had eight years experience as a merchant marine officer and for seven years was master of experditionary vessels
Click images to start slideshow.