Photograph - Flight Sergeant Stewart Ian Drakes

Stewart, or Ian to his friends, was born in Lincolnshire, England on 2 April 1924. He moved to Australia with his parents and brother and sister as a child and completed his education at the Busselton State School in Western Australia.

Stewart worked as a clerk in Perth's Post Master General's Department before enlisting into the Air Force at the age of 18, on 20 May 1942.
He began his aircrew training on 19 August 1942 and was awarded the Air Observers badge on 7 January 1943.

Stewart had nine postings, the last was on 27 September 1943 to No. 8 Squadron, based at Vivagani, Goodenough Island, Papua New Guinea. His aircraft went missing whilst on operations during the night of 14/15 November 1943. It crashed into sea near Kawa Island, New Guinea after making a torpedo attack on Japanese shipping near Rabaul Harbour, New Guinea. Their aircraft was last sighted by other RAAF aircrew on its way back to base at the southern end of St George’s Channel, whilst returning to their base at Vivigani following the raid. A search was carried out, but only a fuel tank was recovered. At the time the exact location of the aircraft was unknown and none of the crew of four were recovered.

On 18 March 2001, 57 years later, the wreck of their Bristol Beaufort aircraft was found by skin-divers 18 metres below the surface on the sandy ocean floor GPS: 8 degrees 32 minutes South, 150 degrees 18 minutes East, 80 kilometres west of the Trobriand Group of islands, Papua New Guinea. The remains of the crew of four were found in the wreckage, together with their identity tags.

It took eight months to plan and execute the recovery of their remains. Their remains were buried on 2nd May 2002, with full military honours, at Bita Paka War Cemetery. The wreckage has been left on the ocean floor as a memorial to the men.

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