RAAF other ranks' cap badge sweetheart brooch : Flight Sergeant C F Ford, RAAF

RAAF Other Ranks' cap badge which has been silvered and converted into a sweetheart brooch by the addition of a pin brooch and safety chain on the reverse.

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.