Leeton airmen Edward George Wicky and Oswald Mountford. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will next week pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of Leeton airman Oswald Mountford who died in Britain in the late stages of the Second World War.
The pilot officer known as ‘Billy’ will be commemorated at the Last Post ceremony on Wednesday 27 November.
The only son of Oswald Senior and Ivy Mountford, Billy was born in the newly established town of Leeton on 11 December 1923 and grew up in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area with his younger sister, Patricia.
Tragically, his father was killed in a lift accident in Sydney shortly after Patricia was born and when Billy was just two years old.
An electrician, 30-year-old Oswald Snr was working in the lift well of an elevator in Darlinghurst when the lift descended and the counterweight struck him in the head.
Billy went to school at Leeton Intermediate High School before taking a job in the public service in the Under Secretary’s Department in Sydney.
“Mountford was 18 when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in Sydney in May 1942, alongside fellow Leeton man, Edward Wicky,” said Australian War Memorial senior historian Craig Tibbitts.
“During aircrew training, Mountford and Wicky paired up and would fly together from then on.
“They arrived in the UK in November, 1943, were posted to No. 464 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force in July 1944, before being granted commissions as pilot officers in the Royal Air Force, joining their new squadron around D-Day.”
Originally from Sydney, Edward ‘Ted’ Wickey was a year older than Billy and had also grown up in the MIA.
Ted also attended Leeton Intermediate High School, where he was something of a junior sports star before his family moved back to Manly where he took a job with the NSW Bank.
The pair quickly earned their stripes flying numerous missions in the De Havilland Mosquito Fighter-Bomber and their gallantry was recognised as they were mentioned in dispatches (MiD) twice and selected to fly the 1000th sortie for the squadron, for which they received a commemorative plaque.
Ground crew “bombing-up” an Australian Mosquito Fighter Bomber in Norfolk England 1943. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
On 26 January 1945 the pair was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in recognition of “exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy in the air”.
“Pilot officers Mountford and Wicky as navigator and pilot respectively, have completed a tour of operational duty,” the citation read.
“They have attacked enemy rail and mechanical transport concentrations achieving some excellent results.
“A fine team, they have never let either enemy opposition or adverse weather deter them from completing their missions.”
Tragically, it was adverse weather that would cause their deaths just two weeks later.
“In the early hours of 4 February 1945, Mountford and Wicky were returning to their base east of Portsmouth after successfully attacking enemy installations in Holland when their Mosquito crashed while taking immediate evasive action near the village of Horndean,” said Mr Tibbitts.
“No civilians were hurt, but both Wicky and Mountford were dead.
“Oswald Mountford was 21 years old.”
Exactly 75 years after the crash, in February 2020, a memorial for the two Australian airmen was unveiled in the East Hampshire village where they died.
A local group called the Horndean Children of the 1940s, who witnessed the accident, had been campaigning for the memorial and raised £25,000 through public donations and grants.
Nine remaining family members of the two Leeton lads travelled to be at the event along with a delegation of British and Australian dignitaries.
District councillors with members of the Horndean Children of the 1940s group and some of the family members of Ted Wicky and Oswald Mountford at the memorial dedication in 2020. Photo: East Hampshire District Council.
The East Hampshire District Council newsletter quoted Councillor Sara Schillemore, who said that it had been “a long and sometimes difficult road to make this happen”.
“We have achieved what we set out to do, which is to create somewhere where we can remember not only these two young men who tragically lost their lives, but the many others who also made that sacrifice,” she said.
Oswald ‘Billy’ Mountford’s niece Jan Aird, was also at the dedication to honour her late mother Patricia’s only brother.
“They will always be here, part of this small community, and they will always be young,” she said.
“I am just once again so thankful that you have honoured them in this way.”
The Last Post ceremony honouring the service of pilot officer Oswald Mountford will be live-streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page.
Lest We Forget.
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