Robert Bruce SMITH

SMITH, Robert Bruce

Service Number: 19667
Enlisted: 15 November 1940
Last Rank: Warrant Officer
Last Unit: No. 21 Squadron (RAAF)
Born: Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia, 17 May 1912
Home Town: Bendigo, Greater Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Bendigo State School, Bendigo School of Mines, Victoria, Australia
Occupation: RAAF Warrant Officer
Died: Aircraft accident, Amberley aerodrome, Queensland Australia, 19 February 1948, aged 35 years
Cemetery: Lutwyche Cemetery, Brisbane, Qld
ANZ 7 79 54
Memorials: Lincoln Bomber Crash Amberley 1948
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World War 2 Service

15 Nov 1940: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Warrant Officer, 19667, No. 21 Squadron (RAAF)
15 Nov 1940: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Warrant Officer, 19667
19 Feb 1948: Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Warrant Officer, 19667

Robert Bruce Smith

The life of Robert Bruce Smith was researched by my father, Philip Walter Smith. Philip was one of Bruce's many first cousins. His father, Percy Smith was a brother to Walter Charles Smith - Phil's father. I am Phil's son. They were a Wandiligong family where Percy and Walter were born, along with their siblings.
In 2017 Phil published 'The Blacksmith's Family'. This is an account of 3 generations of the Smith family. It includes Bruce and my father's generation.
The book has what is by far the most detailed record of Bruce's life and includes a thorough account of the disaster that took his life on the 19th of February, 1948. As a man in his late 80s, and almost 70 years after the event, Bruce's death frequently moved my father to tears. It was such a futile death and so unnecessary, killing men who had survived service in WW2, just to die in this accident, 3 years after the end of the War. The ISBN number of 'The Blacksmith's Family' is 978-0-646-96142-2. The book can be found at the National Library of Australia and in Melbourne's State Library. It is also held by the Genealogical Society of Victoria.

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Biography contributed by David Barlow

On the 19th of February 1948 Lincoln aircraft A73-11 of Number 12 Squadron (82 Wing) crashed on landing at Amberley aerodrome in Queensland killing all on board - 6 crew and 10 passengers -

WILLIAMS, Eric Ellis (Flight Lieutenant) 423963 DFC

WELSH, Frederick Leslie (Warrant Officer) 410769

KOBELKE, Norman Henry (Flight Lieutenant) 404343 DFC

GIBSON, Kenneth Alfred (Warrant Officer) 439649

KENNERLY, Leslie Thomas (Warrant Officer) 436854

WELFARE, Thomas Walter (Warrant Officer) 437239

TAGGART, William John (Flight Lieutenant) 413041 DFC

MULCAHY, Bryan Stanley (Flight Lieutenant) 428279 DFC

GARDNER, Walter Greenough (Flight Lieutenant) 405731 DFC

GIBB, John James (Flight Lieutenant) 428597

FRANKLIN, Mostyn Lloyd (Flight Lieutenant) 406214 DFM (21SQN)

RYANHART, Sydney John (Flight Lieutenant) 14941 (21SQN)

SMITH, Robert Bruce (Warrant Officer) 19667 (21SQN)

DESMOND, Michael James (Sergeant) 25292 (ESL)

BERNARD, Arthur Dudley (Corporal) 64045 (3AD)

WORLAND, Robert Arthur John (Leading Aircraftman) 170963 (3AD) (Q232680 WW2)

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