DE VIS, Selwyn George

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Fate
  5. Commemoration
  6. Notes
  7. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Air Force
Conflict
World War II (1939-1945)
Date of Enlistment
30/06/1942
Place of Enlistment
Sydney NSW

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Date of Birth
11/06/1923
Place of Birth
Brisbane, Queensland
Address (at enlistment)
Coranderrk Street, Reid ACT
School(s) Attended
Ainslie Primary School, Telopea Park Intermediate High School, Canberra High School
Occupation
CSIRO employee for 2 years, then laboratory technician Sydney University Anatomy Department.
Next of Kin
Son of Frederick Selwyn De Vis, clerk, and Hazel Doreen Victoria De Vis, of 62 Coranderrk Street, Reid, Canberra ACT, and later of Magill SA.
Burial Place

Rheinberg War Cemetery, Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal, Germany: grave 13. F. 9.

Unit and Rank Details

Service Number
423499
Final Rank
Pilot Officer
Final Unit
77 Squadron RAF

Fate

Died 19 March 1945 in flying battle over Germany

Commemoration

AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT: Panel 121.
Canberra High School Memorial Tablet
St John the Baptist Anglican Church, Reid, Book of Remembrance of Canberra parishioners who died in the war of 1939-45, in recess in south wall of nave.

Notes

De Vis enlisted in 1942 and arrived in the UK in July 1943 initially mustered as an air gunner but ultimately as a wireless operator with 77 Squadron RAF, part of Bomber Command, flying in a Halifax bomber (RF529). OnĀ 19 March 1945, his 38th mission, his plane and another crashed at Merklinde, about four miles west of Dortmund in Germany, in an apparent mid air collision. They were on a mission to bomb oil refineries at Witten in the Ruhr valley.

De Vis worked for CSIR after finishing school but at the time of his call up in 1942 he was a laboratory technician at the Department of Anatomy Medical School at Sydney University. He was studying for a diploma in biological chemistry.

Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, weight 108 pounds, chest 29.5-32 inches, medium complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, Church of England.

Sources

Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Debt of Honour Register. <http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search/>
Australia. Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War 2 nominal roll. <http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/>
AWM Roll of Honour and Roll of Honour Circulars <http://www.awm.gov.au/database/roh.asp>
Canberra High School. Roll of Honour 1939-1945. [Plaque in school]
Canberra High School. Albums compiled for student project researching names on School Roll of Honour, 1985.
Canberra High School. Unveiling of Memorial Tablet. Friday, 25th April 1947. [Programme]
Don Mountain ed. Monumental inscriptions: Australian Capital Territory, including Jervis Bay. Canberra, Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001, (p.41)
NAA RecordSearch - Series A705, A9300
ACT Electoral Roll - 1941, 1943
The Canberra Times - 2 April 1945, 13 December 1945

Create Certificate
Grave of Selwyn De Vis. NAA file Series A705.

Grave of Selwyn De Vis. NAA file Series A705.

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