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