The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (420181) Pilot Officer Francis Clive Gaha, No. 36 Operational Training Unit, RCAF, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Nicholas Schmidt, the story for this day was on (420181) Pilot Officer Francis Clive Gaha, No. 36 Operational Training Unit, RCAF, Second World War.

420181 Pilot Officer Francis Clive Gaha, No. 36 Operational Training Unit, RCAF
KIA 18 March 1943

No photograph in collection

Today we remember Pilot Officer Francis Clive Gaha, who was killed in an accident while training in Canada on 13 March 1943. He was one of 37,000 Australians who trained as airmen through the Empire Air Training Scheme during the Second World War.

Francis Gaha was born on 26 February 1913 in Emmaville on the Northern Tablelands in northern New South Wales. He was the fourth child of Frank and Sarah Gaha. His father, Frank, was born on Mount Lebanon, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Officially describing himself as "Syrian", he migrated to Australia with his family when he was 23 years old and became a naturalised British subject in 1910. In the early 1920s, Frank Gaha moved his family from Emmaville to Campsie, an inner-west suburb of Sydney.

Francis Gaha must have been a gifted and scholarly student, as in an era when relatively few people attended university he went on to higher education, studying English and Latin and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney. After graduation, Gaha became a schoolteacher.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Gaha enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 11 October 1941. In the same year he married Enid Jean Hutton and the couple lived in a flat in Milsons Point.

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in September 1939, Britain realised it did not have enough manpower and resources to maintain the Royal Air Force for the war with Germany. In December, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand came to an agreement whereby the dominions would train aircrew for the RAF. Flying schools were established in each country to provide elementary training, with more advanced training taking place in Canada, and in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. From the 27,000 Australian airmen who served in Britain during the war, some 10,000 trained in Canada and while another 647 trained in Rhodesia.

Gaha completed his elementary training in Australia before being sent to Canada in 1942. Here he was posted to No. 36 Operational Training Unit, Royal Canadian Air Force. Stationed at Greenwood, Nova Scotia, the unit trained crews for general reconnaissance flying twin-engine Lockheed Hudsons.

On 18 March 1943 Gaha was the navigator in a Hudson that was detailed to carry out low-level bombing practice on the Berwick Bombing Range. However, as the aircraft approached the range at about 10.30 am it struck some trees and crashed into the ground, immediately catching fire. Gaha and Pilot Officer Harry Banks were killed. Two Australian wireless operators/air gunners who were also on board survived the crash but were badly burned.

Gaha is buried in Kingston St Lawrence Roman Catholic Cemetery. He was 30 years old. He is among the 146 Australians who died while serving in the Empire Air Training Scheme now buried or commemorated in Canada.

Pilot Officer Francis Clive Gaha is also commemorated here, on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War. There is no photograph in the Memorial's collection to display beside the Pool of Reflection.

We now remember his service and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.