1939-45 Star : Flight Lieutenant A J C Palmer, 13 Squadron RAAF

1939-45 Star. Unnamed as issued.

Associated with the service of 408504 Flight Lieutenant Arthur James Charles Palmer. Palmer was born in London in 1917 and immigrated to Australia with his family soon after. He served with the 3rd Divisional Signals (militia) from 1936 to 1938 before applying to join the Royal Australian Air Force in 1940. However he was not accepted for flight training until April 1941 as he had not studied trigonometry at school and was required to attend night classes to satisfy this requirement. Initially Palmer trained on Tiger Moths and Avro Ansons before being posted to 7 Squadron, Laverton where he undertook conversion training to become a second pilot for the Lockheed Hudson bomber. On 14 March 1942 he was posted to 13 Squadron RAAF, then based in Darwin, and allocated to Flight Lieutenant Robert Nixon Dalkin's Hudson crew. He completed 32 Hudson operations, many of them around Koepang and Dili, Timor. At the end of his tour in August 1942, Palmer was posted south to Victoria where he trained to become a pilot, capable of flying the Lockheed Hudson bomber. He was commissioned as a pilot officer on 1 October, promoted to flying officer on 1 April 1943 and flight lieutenant on 1 October 1944. Palmer underwent further training as a flying instructor on Tiger Moths and finished the war as an instructor at Benalla, Victoria. He was discharged on 29 October 1945. Arthur Palmer died in November 2000.

• Pacific Star : Flight Lieutenant A J C Palmer, 13 Squadron RAAF
• British War Medal 1939-45 : Flight Lieutenant A J C Palmer, 13 Squadron RAAF
• Australia Service Medal : Flight Lieutenant A J C Palmer, 13 Squadron RAAF