Norman Peter Coles GUNSON DFC

GUNSON, Norman Peter Coles

Service Number: 407424
Enlisted: 12 October 1940
Last Rank: Flight Lieutenant
Last Unit: No. 34 Squadron (RAAF)
Born: Glenelg, South Australia, 18 August 1917
Home Town: Glenelg, Holdfast Bay, South Australia
Schooling: Sacred Heart College, Glenelg, South Australia
Occupation: Clerk - Adelaide Steamship Company
Died: Illness, Adelaide, South Australia, 21 November 2009, aged 92 years
Cemetery: West Terrace Cemetery (General) Adelaide, South Australia
Memorials: Somerton Park Sacred Heart College Honor Roll WW2
Show Relationships

World War 2 Service

12 Oct 1940: Involvement Flight Lieutenant, 407424
12 Oct 1940: Enlisted Adelaide
12 Oct 1940: Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Flight Lieutenant, 407424
16 Jan 1946: Discharged
16 Jan 1946: Involvement Royal Australian Air Force, No. 34 Squadron (RAAF)
Date unknown: Honoured Distinguished Flying Cross

Help us honour Norman Peter Coles Gunson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by David Barlow

Flight Lieutenant Norman Peter Coles Gunson DFC 407424 served with Number 22 Squadron RAAF flying Boston bomber aircraft in the SWPA - he was commended for his flying skill in returning to base in A28-5 after the aircraft was heavily hit by anti-aircraft fire over New Britain 29 August 1943

He is buried in West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide and the family plot also commemorates his brother Flying Officer Paul Coles Gunson 407436 who was KIA on the 1st of October 1942 in 13SQN Hudson A16-243 - Paul is officially commemorated on the Northern Territory Memorial to the Missing in Adelaide River War Cemetery. 

Norman and Paul enlisted together on the 12th of October 1940

The AWM hold his Flight Log book and a photographic scrapbook that he compiled during his WW2 service in New Guinea

Their cousins also served in the RAAF - Flying Officer Alan William Morphett Gunson 417178 (KIA 21 Sep 1943 with 10SQN RAAF) & Flying Officer Henry Arthur Morphett Gunson 416955 (survived the war - flew with 463 Squadron RAAF)

Read more...