SAMUEL Donald Whiteside known as Donald or Don to his friends left the family farm in Korumburra like many others during WWII never to return.
On Saturday, March 29 the Australian War Memorial in Canberra will commemorate the service and sacrifice of Pilot Officer Whiteside as part of the daily Last Post Ceremony.
Educated at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, St. Patricks College then the University of Melbourne, Donald Whiteside’s ultimate sacrifice is remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour as part of the International Bomber Command Centre.
Following the outbreak of WWII the Korumburra farmer enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on June 4, 1941 receiving his navigator’s beret on May 28, 1942.
In mid-November 1942, Whiteside arrived in Britain as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme and was posted to RAAF No. 460 Squadron at RAF Binbrook.
Crewing was multi-national but 460 Squadron like so many other Australian squadrons had a predominately Australian crew particularly towards the end of the war.
Almost a year later on October 3, 1943, Pilot Officer Whiteside and his crew flew Avro Lancaster B1 Bomber ‘G for George’ on its 59th mission.
During the Berlin Offensive from 1943 to 1944 Australian airmen such as Pilot Officer Whiteside served with Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command participating in raids over Berlin.
On the night of January 27, 1944, Whiteside and his crew in Lancaster JB 637 took off from RAF Binbrook to bomb Berlin but did not return to base.
Initially posted as missing it was not until 1951 that the RAAF determined that Whiteside and his crew had been shot down by a German night fighter south-west of Berlin.
Whiteside was buried in a war cemetery nearby alongside his fellow crew members.
The Last Post ceremony at the Australian War Memorial is held at 4.30pm every day except Christmas Day and each ceremony shares one of the stories behind the 103,000 names on the Honour Roll.
To date the Memorial has delivered more than 3800 ceremonies each featuring an individual story of service, it would take more than 280 years to read the story behind each of the 103,000 names listed.
“The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service,” said Memorial Director Matt Anderson.
“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died we also tell the stories of who they were when they were alive, and of the families who
loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.
“The Last Post is associated with remembrance but originally it was a bugle call to sound the end of the day’s activities in the military.
“It is a fitting way to end each day at the Memorial,” said Mr Anderson.
The Last Post Ceremony honouring the service of Pilot Officer Samuel Whiteside will be live streamed on the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page youtube.com/c/awmlastpost.
