Catalina Association blazer pocket : Pilot Officer S A Carr, Royal Australian Air Force

Plain weave royal blue wool blazer pocket worn by members of the RAAF Catalina Association. The centre of the pocket is embroidered in brown with a representation of a Consolidated Catalina aircraft within a gold laurel wreath. The embroidery is backed with plain weave black cotton.

Associated with the service of Sidney Alwyn Carr, born 16 April 1920, at Port Lincoln, South Australia. Carr was a trainee motor mechanic when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 14 May 1940, and trained as a Fitter IIE, qualifying in Wasp rotary engine maintenance in February 1941. He was promoted to leading aircraftman in July 1941; to corporal in August 1942; sergeant in June 1944, when he also qualified as a flight engineer; and to flight sergeant on December 1944. In May 1945, after completing officer training he was commissioned as a pilot officer. Apart from a brief period attached to 24 Squadron in 1942, then operating Wirraways out of Townsville, Carr served with 11 Squadron, operating Catalina aircraft out of Rathmines from May 1942, and finally with the newly raised 42 Squadron, from August 1944, also operating Catalinas. When Carr first transferred to the latter unit the squadron was flying out of Melville Island in the Northern Territory, on reconnaissance and escort duties to New Guinea, and later in mine laying operations over the Celebes in the Dutch East Indies. By the beginning of 1945 most of the squadron’s aircraft had moved to Morotai, again involved in mining laying in Brunei Bay, Tarakan, Sanadakan, Surabaya and the Philippines. At the end of the war, in August 1945, the squadron helped in the evacuation of prisoners of war from Manila in the Philippines, and returning army personnel from Labuan in the Dutch East Indies. Pilot Officer Carr was discharged on 29 November 1945.