Sydney Charles Bertram Abbott

Sydney Charles Bertram Abbott was born in Melbourne, Victoria, on 26 February 1921 and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in August 1940. Before the war he had studied at Dookie Agricultural College and worked while awaiting call-up. After training in Australia and Canada he reached Britain and flew in the hard-used Ventura force, serving with No. 464 Squadron RAAF and later No. 487 Squadron RNZAF.

Abbott’s Distinguished Flying Cross recognised a long run of operational flying that included Dieppe and the low-level daylight attack on Eindhoven. Virtual War Memorial Australia records that on the Eindhoven operation one engine was badly damaged before the target, but Abbott continued and the target was bombed. He was killed on 9 August 1943, aged 22, when Ventura AJ454 crashed at Larchwood in Norfolk while he was on a rest period after operational service. He is buried at Marham Cemetery and remembered on Australian and bomber-command memorial rolls.