Flight Lieutenant Gordon Warren MacDonnell

Flight Lieutenant Gordon Warren MacDonnell travelled from Queensland to the United Kingdom in June 1940, to enlist in the Royal Air Force. As he had previous civil aviation experience, he was selected to become a flight instructor. Flight Lieutenant MacDonnell later joined 603 ‘City of Edinburgh’ Squadron, and served with this unit in Egypt, Libya, and Italy. On 16 January 1944, Flight Lieutenant MacDonnell’s plane was shot down near the coast of Turkey. He was presumed to have died shortly thereafter, as his body was washed ashore and buried by locals on the Greek island of Lesbos on 13 February 1944. Flight Lieutenant MacDonnell is now buried at Phaeron War Cemetery, Greece, and commemorated on the Commemorative Roll at the Australian War Memorial. Flight Lieutenant MacDonnell’s twin brother, QX19120 Lieutenant Desmond King MacDonnell, served with 2/31 Australian Infantry Battalion. He died of wounds in Papua on the Kokoda Trail on 14 September 1942.