Fleming, Dr Edward Lloyd (Wing Commander, b.1925)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of 318689 Flying Officer (later Wing Commander) Edward 'Ted' Lloyd Fleming, No. 550 Squadron, England, Ireland and Australia, 1945-1957.

Collection consists of two black hand-written diaries containing almost daily entries dating from 23 January 1945 to 19 November 1945, and brief entries in 1947 and 1957.

Diary one contains details of Flying Officer Fleming's wartime service in the last few months of the war. It contains detailed entries on the daily life of an Australian in Bomber Command as the war was coming to an end. Entries include details of the billeting system of Allied soldiers in Britain, the daily schedule of the pilot, including flights taken, and many of the places that were visited on leave. Many entries are dedicated to time on leave spent in Ireland and the friendship he formed with a girl he met there. Entries are also dedicated to the celebrations around both VE and VJ Day.

Diary two contains entires, largely written while Flying Officer Fleming was on leave, owing to the war's end. Approximately the last half of the diary is spent discussing Flying Officer Fleming's return to Australia aboard the MV Stirling Castle. Brief entries in the back of the diary includes several pages from April 1947, while Flying Officer Fleming was attending university, studying medicine as part of the Commonwealth Repatriation Scheme. The last pages in this diary contain identification papers with photos of each of Flying Officer Fleming's parents, possibly cut out of a passport or similar dating from March 1957.

Throughout each diary there are sketches completed by Flying Officer Fleming of sites seen throughout the period of the diary.

In 1967 Dr Fleming served as Medical Officer on Medevac (Aeromedical Evacuation) to Vung Tau and in 1972 he served as locum specialist surgeon at 4 RAAF Hospital Butterworth. Dr Fleming retired from RAAF Reserve in 1980 with the rank of Wing Commander.

Also see PR05229 and AWM2019.1030.1.

• Diary of Edward Lloyd Fleming, January- September 1945
• Diary of Edward Lloyd Fleming, October 1945- March 1957