Roy Thomas Aston Wallis

Roy Thomas Aston Wallis

Personal Information
Date of Birth	17 Dec 1920
Place of Birth	Eltham, Kent, England
Death	10 Jul 1942
Place of Death	Libya
Age at Enlistment	19 years, 10 months
Description	5'9" (1.75m) tall ; 126lbs 57.153 kg ; fair complexion ; blue-grey eyes ; fair hair
Occupation	Bank clerk
Religion	Methodist
Address	Byford, Western Australia
Next of Kin	Father , Mr James Lewis Wallis
Military Information
Reg Number	406269
Date of Enlistment	7 Oct 1940
Rank	Flight Sergeant
Unit/Formation	No. 250 (Sudan) Squadron RAF
Military Movement
1st Departure from Australia
Journey Dates	5 Jul 1941
Post War Details
Fate	Killed in air operations
Monument(s)	Armadale War Memorial ANZAC Memorial Park (Byford) Alamein Memorial, El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt
Australian War Memorial	Australian War Memorial
Medals	1939-45 Star Africa Star War Medal 1939-45 Australian Service Medal 1939-45

Pre War

Attended Perth Boy's School from 1 Feb 1934 until 22 Dec 1936, and then Perth Modern School from 1 Feb 1937 until 1 Aug 1937. He sat the UWA Junior Exams and passed Maths A & B; History; Geography; General Science; French; Woodwork; and Drawing B. On leaving school he obtained a position as a Junior Clerk with the Agricultural Bank.

War Service

Joined in Perth at the No. 4 RAAF Recruiting Centre in Yorkshire House, and was posted to the No. 1 Recruit Depot in Laverton, Victoria departing Perth on 10 Oct and arriving at his new unit on 14 Oct 1940. On 12 Dec 1940 he had completed his basic training, and was promoted to Leading Aircraftman prior to being sent to No. 2 Elementary Flying School at Lindfield. On 10 Feb 1941 he graduated and was sent to No. 3 Service Flight Training School at Amberley in Queensland. While there, on 24 Mar 1941 Roy was charged with "Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order and Air Force Discipline in that he at Amberley on 24/3/41 disobeyed Flight Authorisation Book Instruction of the 23/3/41, referring to orders for take off and landing instructions to be obtained from the instructor". For this he was awarded 7 days Confined to Barracks. Training completed on 29 May 1941, Roy was promoted to Flight Sergeant and posted to the No. 5 Embarkation Depot to await a ship to the Middle East.

Roy's ship departed for the Middle East on 8 Jul 1941 and after arrival he would have waited in a base unit until posted to an operational unit. On 28 Sep 1941 he was posted to No. 450 Squadron RAAF which at the time was based in Syria. Roy was sent to the No. 71 Operational Training Unit on 20 Oct 1941, and on the completion of his course was held by the Middle East Pool from 6 Dec 1941 until he was posted to Air HQ Western Desert on 19 Dec 1941. Roy joined an operational squadron, No. 250 Squadron RAF, on 10 Jan 1942, just before they were withdrawn from front line operations to carrying out defensive sweeps over Syria. During this time they converted to Kittyhawks.

The Squadron returned to the Western Desert in April 1942 as a fighter bomber unit and provided support for the 8th Army, advancing with it through Libya into Tunisia to end the North African campaign. Roy failed to return from a mission on 10 Jul 1942.

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  Memorial walls at El Alamein Memorial
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  Location of Roy's name

Notes

AWM records list Roy's unit as No. 3 Squadron RAAF. However, his personnel records give his final unit as No. 250 Squadron, an RAF unit. Both units flew Kittyhawks.