Pilot Officer Douglas John White
- Rank
- Pilot Officer
- Appointment
- Royal Australian Air Force 1944 NW Europe
- Service number
- 427966
- Unit
- 30 Operational Training Unit Royal Air Force
- Cause of death
- Accidental
- Place of death
- Irish Sea
- Date of death
- 12 October 1944
- Age
- 21
- Plaque number
- L391
- Dedicated by
- the National Bank Staff on 9 November 1952
- More information
Pilot Officer Douglas John White 427966 (1923-1944, born Cottesloe, Western Australia) enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force at Perth, Western Australia. on 11 October 1942 and was trained at as Pilot at Cunderdin and Geraldton, Western Australia. He was sent to the United Kingdom (UK) under the Air Training Plan (known as the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) in Australia) and attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF) for night bomber aircraft conversion with No. 30 Operational Training Unit RAF. During a training flight over the Irish Sea on 12 October 1944, Wellington aircraft MF968 was lost without trace and all six crew, five RAAF members, Pilot Officer White, Warrant Officer John Richardson Gibson 426094 born Croydon, New South Wales, Flight Sergeant Ronald George Kingsley 419758 of Box Hill, Victoria, Flight Sergeant William Mathew Schafer 433034 of Sydney, New South Wales, Flight Sergeant Angus Reginald Telford 437884 of Mount Gambier, South Australia, and one RAF member, Sergeant Hubert Glasper 1699735 of Darlington, County Durham, England, were killed.
Pilot Officer White has no known grave and his official memorial is the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, United Kingdom, where his name is shown on Panel 259. His Roll of Honour is Peppermint Grove, Western Australia.
His honour plaque in Kings Park was dedicated by the National (now National Australia) Bank Staff on 9 November 1952. He is the son of Herbert John White (c1886-1949) and Catherine Braithwaite White (nee Smith) (c1893-1979) of Peppermint Grove.
Pilot Officer White is remembered with honour.