As we prepare for Anzac Day 2025, our family reflects on the uncle we never had the chance to meet, the young boy from Rhodes who answered the call for King and the Empire.
John “Jack” Milton Booth was born in Ashfield, NSW on 1st May 1922, the eldest child of Robert and Vivienne Booth.
In May 1929 the family purchased land and built a home in Rhodes. Jack Booth was a “Rhodes Scholar” enrolled firstly at Rhodes Public School then at Parramatta Intermediate High School, completing his Intermediate Certificate in November 1937.
After leaving school Jack worked at David Jones Limited in Sydney as a junior salesman and then as a window dresser. In his leisure time he enjoyed sailing, hockey, tennis and cricket.
With Australia heavily involved in World War II, Jack applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force in March 1941. Jack had already served as a volunteer in the 18th Battalion Infantry at Gladesville from 1938 to 1940 and was active with the 2nd Armoured regiment at Ashfield.
John Milton Booth commenced his full time engagement as Aircrew with the RAAF on 11th October 1941, aged 19 years and 163 days. He began his introductory flying training instruction at 10 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) at Temora, NSW on 30 April 1942. In his Flight Logbook he recorded the various Tiger Moths and other aircraft he flew and the records of the various flight milestones he achieved. His initial flight training programme at Temora was completed on 17 June 1942.
In July 1942 he married Audrey Gough in Haberfield, NSW just days before he left Australia for further training in Calgary, Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. His group travelled by ship to Canada on an old cargo ship in very cramped conditions. He wrote about waking each morning with a headache from breathing the stale air in the overcrowded cabin.
After extensive training in Canada, Jack was awarded his Pilot’s Flying Badge on 30 December 1942 . From Canada he was shipped across the Atlantic for further training in the UK in early February 1943. When this training was completed he was posted to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds on 18th November 1943 , one week later he was posted to the newly formed 576 Squadron (also at Elsham Wolds) flying Avro Lancaster bombers. This squadron was formed as part of 1 Group Bomber Command, it was engaged in operations against mostly German targets by night.
Flight Sergeant John Milton Booth and six other crew departed Elsham Wolds at 1705hrs on the night of 2nd December 1943 in control of Lancaster W4337 on an operation to bomb Berlin, Germany. They did not return to base and were not heard from ever again.
The aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Monchengladbach and all the crew members were killed. Their bodies were repatriated and laid to rest in the Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany.
Jack was aged 21 years and 7 months.
“On the afternoon of the 8th November, 1949, with all the pageantry of Church and State, the Memorial Books of Nos. 1 and 5 Groups, Bomber Command, were laid in the Airmen’s Chapel of St Michael in Lincoln Cathedral. The Books, of exquisite craftmanship and bound in Morocco leather of Air Force Blue, contain the names of 21,000 aircrew of the two Groups who were lost on operational missions during the war.”1.
John Milton Booth and his air crew are listed in this Bomber Command Memorial in Lincoln Cathedral.
John and Sharon Weismantel
Reference
1. Opening words from the booklet printed of The Ceremony held at Lincoln Cathedral on 8th November 1949
Photographs
Picture of Flight Sergeant Jon Milton Booth in Air Force uniform
Picture of Jack and his Australian crew members
Picture of Bomber Command Memorial book at Lincoln Cathedral
