The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (422034) Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks, No. 172 Squadron (RAF), Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2018.1.1.318
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 14 November 2018
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (422034) Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks, No. 172 Squadron (RAF), Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

422034 Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks, No. 172 Squadron (RAF)
Flying battle 14 November 1944
Story delivered 14 November 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks.

George Victor Weeks was born on 10 September 1914 in Ballarat, Victoria, the second youngest of six children born to Daniel and Priscilla Weeks. George was the first member of his family born in Australia; his family had recently migrated from the United Kingdom, where his father had served in the military. His father Daniel, who had served in the 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers of the British Army, was awarded the Tibet medal for his service in that area in 1903-1904.

George Weeks grew up in Ballarat, and later moved to Sydney, where he lived and worked as a bank clerk. At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, he was working as a bank clerk at the Commonwealth Bank in Temora, in the Riverina area of New South Wales.

In August 1937, Weeks travelled from Sydney to Ballarat, where he married his sweetheart Nancy May Quanchie. The couple would have one child together, Annette, in August 1940.
Weeks enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 24 April 1942. All five of the Weeks brothers served for Australia in the Second World War: Frank in the Air Force, John in the army, Ern in the navy, and Daniel in an army militia unit. In doing so, they were following in the footsteps of their father, who had served in the army after migrating to Australia, and during the First World War was wounded on Gallipoli before travelling to the Western Front.

After joining the Air Force in 1942, George Weeks commenced his training at various bases across Australia, including air observers’ school at Cootamundra, New South Wales, and bombing and air gunnery school at West Sale, Victoria.

In February 1943, he sailed from Sydney for Canada to continue his training as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. This was a system in which airmen from across the British Empire were brought together to train, and then sent to serve in units that required their services.

In June 1943, Weeks was attached to the Royal Air Force, and sailed from Canada for England.

In May 1944 he was posted to No. 172 Squadron RAF. This unit served in Coastal Command, a branch of the Air Force responsible for patrolling the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in search of enemy ships and U-boats. This was a difficult task, and the men of Coastal Command flew long arduous missions in often appalling weather conditions.

In the early hours of 14 November 1944, Weeks took off in a Wellington aircraft from No. 172 Squadron’s base in Limvady, Northern Ireland, as part of a routine patrol flight over the waters of the North Atlantic. Shortly after take-off, Weeks’s aircraft burst into flames and crashed into the sea near Malin Head. While the exact cause of the crash could not be determined, but the most likely causes were enemy attack or engine failure.

Survived by his young wife and four-year-old daughter, Weeks was 30 years old.

Weeks was the only member of the crew whose body was ever found, and today his remains lie in the Drumachose Church of Ireland Cemetery in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, under the epitaph: “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die”.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (422034) Pilot Officer George Victor Weeks, No. 172 Squadron (RAF), Second World War. (video)