Allan Douglas MacDougall 1918-1944

Allan was born at Sale on 31 March 1918, the only son of Jessie Jane Symington and Patrick MacDougall.  He was educated at Beaufort Higher Elementary School and from 1932-1935 he attended Geelong College where was a boarder. 

He was killed in World War 2 on 13 September 1944. Allan was a Pilot Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and was shot down in a night raid over Frankfurt while serving with the 15 Squadron, R.A.F. He is buried in the Durnbach War Cemetery at Bad Tolz, Bayern. [1]

Flight details: [2]

Lancaster LM110/LS-G

W/O A D MacDougall RAAF, Sgt K M McKie, F/S R T Keen, Sgt I Howitt, W/O D C Moore, Sgt J M McNee, Sgt T K Hunter

Took off 1833 Mildenhall. Crashed 2240, roughly 200m west of the Edigheimer Strasse twixt the Stadtteilen Oppau and Edigheim BASF-Bahn-linie Werk Oppau and Lu-Oggersheim Gewanne.

All are buried in the Durnbach War Cemetery.

Memorial Inscription:

In Memory of Pilot Officer Allan Douglas MacDougall 405955, Royal Australian Air Force who died on 13 September 1944 Age 26

Son of the Revd. John Patrick MacDougall and Jessie Jane MacDougall, of Beaufort, Victoria, Australia; husband of Rosemary Vincent MacDougall, of Beaufort.

Remembered with Honour

He is also remembered in the Roll of Honour at Beaufort, his home town.

The Argus Wednesday 27 December 1944

SERVICE CASUALTY

Notification has been received from official sources by the Rev J. P. and Mrs MacDougall, of The Manse, Beaufort, that their only son, Pilot Officer Alan MacDougall (reported missing some weeks ago), was killed over Germany. He leaves a widow in England.

According to his WW2 service record, Allan MacDougall enlisted as a corporal in the 26th Battalion but after one year he transferred to the R.A.A.F. (Service Number 405955), which he joined at Sale on 19 July 1941. Before enlisting, he was working as a jackeroo at Eddington Station, at Gilliat, a now abandoned town in outback Queensland. 

On 22 June 1942 his engagement was announced in the Melbourne Herald to Margaret Helen Luxton, youngest daughter of a former mayor of Melbourne. That arrangement appears to have been annulled, her engagement to Maxwell Alan Woodfine (1921-1976) being announced in the Argus on 3 March 1944. He was a wool classer from Geelong. They married in Claremont in 1945 and had two children, Jocelyn Dianne and Peter Woodfine. In 1961 Margaret married John Henry George Roffey (1913-1988).

Allan married Rosemary Frances Vincent Jones in London on 25 August 1944 but was killed in action less than three weeks later. Rosemary emigrated to Victoria, in the Esperance Bay, arriving on 27 August 1950 and married Sutton Roy Ferrier (1918-1993) at Echuca on 28 October 1950. She died in Echuca on 5 July 2010, aged 88.

[1] Memorial Reference 7.B.22 Commonwealth War Graves Commission (w.w.w.cwgc.internet/casualty)

[2] Chorley, W. R., Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 5 Aircraft and Crew losses. 1944