Warrant Officer Donald Lester’s World War II service with the Royal Air Force has been honoured through Bundaberg Regional Council’s Streets of Remembrance program.
The program sees the badge under which local veterans served added to the signs of Bundaberg Region streets as a tribute to their service.
Lester Street in Norville was named for Donald in November 1951, and it was noted then that Donald was a resident of Bundaberg at the time of his enlistment.
Born in 1914 in Ipswich Queensland, Donald Joseph Lester was the second son of Joseph and Eva Lester, who later moved to Bororen, Queensland where they ran a dairy and reared cattle.
Donald was 28 years old and working as a farmer when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1942.
With no previous flying experience, Donald undertook training in Maryborough, Evans Head, and Sandgate before he embarked from Melbourne to the United Kingdom in January 1943.
Donald served in the No. 83 Squadron RAAF and progressed from air crew to air gunner with the rank of Sergeant in November 1942, to Flight Sergeant in May 1943 and to Warrant Officer in May 1944.
As recorded in the National Archives of Australia, Donald was in the crew of a Lancaster aircraft that was detailed to bomb a target in Bois De Casson, France, on 6 August 1944.
After hitting the target, the aircraft was attacked by a formation of 9 out of 18 Focker Wolff 190 German aircraft, and the Lancaster aircraft Donald was in was hit multiple times.
According to another document in the archives which appears to be the recollection of a Bob Munro, the pilot of the Lancaster ordered the crew to don parachutes and bale out.
After Donald did so, the pilot regained control of the aircraft and the order to abandon was cancelled.
Donald’s parachute was seen to open at Latitude 49°05°N Longitude 02.10 E, however there was no further record of him, and he was presumed dead from the same date.
The Lancaster aircraft was further attacked, but successfully returned to RAF base Ford in West Sussex, UK.
Warrant Officer Donald Lester was 30 years old when he died and his name is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede, Surrey and the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour.
For his service, Donald was awarded the RAAF Air Gunner’s Badge, the 1939-1945 Star, Air Crew Europe Star and clasp, the War Medal and the Australian Defence Medal.
Service number: 425173
Information on Warrant Officer Lester’s life and service is from the National Archives of Australia, Australian War Memorial, Queensland Government Births Deaths and Marriages, and Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
This article first appeared on Bundaberg Now.
