Plastic 'WAG' badge : Flight Sergeant C F Ford, RAAF

Oval shaped plastic sweetheart badge with 'WAG' inscription. The badge, which does not appear to have been completed, has been moulded in clear plastic, and features the 'hand and thunderbolt' qualification badge of air force wireless operators. Above this are the letters 'WAG' ('Wireless operator / Air Gunner'). The letters and the thunderbolts, which are impressed into the rear of the badge, have been picked out in gold paint, while the hand, which is also impressed, is in brown paint. The entire back of the badge has been given a coating of RAF blue paint, but the pin clasp which would normally be attached to make a sweetheart brooch is not present.

This badge was probably made or bought by Fred Ford as a gift for members of his family. Clarence Frederick ('Fred') Ford was born at Paddington, NSW, in 1925. He was a member of the Australian Air League as a youth, and enlisted in the RAAF as soon as he reached the age of 18 in 1943. As number 432779, he underwent aircrew training as a wireless operator / air gunner, but was killed in April 1945, when he and the remainder of his crew onboard Handley Page Halifax MkIII (serial number NA193) bomber, who were undergoing final training with 1652 Conversion Unit at Marston Moor, Yorkshire, were lost over the North Sea. He is commemorated on the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial in the United Kingdom and on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial.