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Description & History

The families of the men killed in action during the Second World War requested the installation of a stained glass window as a tribute to their boys; Allan Bennett, Archie Fingher, Ron McTier, Ian Neate, Herbert Pritchard and Howard Yeo. The memorial was unveiled by Chaplain F.C. Bremer on the afternoon of the 1947 church anniversary, one of the big events of the Ascot Vale Methodists' year, held in late September or October.

Of the six young men from the church who enlisted and died, one joined the AIF, another the RAN, and all others joined the RAAF. Leading Aircraftman Allan Wilfred Bennett was aged 21 and serving with RAAF TTMO Madang when he died of illness; he is memorialised at Carr Villa General Cemetery, Tasmania. Howard Garfield Yeo was serving with the RAAF in South Australia when he was notified that he had topped the Victorian examinations for chartered accountancy. Later the same year Flight Sergeant Yeo of 12 Squadron RAF, was killed in an air accident in England on 25 June 1943; his memorial is Watford Cemetery, U.K.. Flight-Sergeant George Ian Hamilton Neate, aged 23, was reported missing after a flight from a Northern Territory base in 1944 during air operations over Buru, Maluka in Indonesia; he is remembered at the Ambon War Cemetery. Pilot Officer Ron McTier, 5 Communication Unit Garbutt, was another young man killed in an accident at Mareeba, Queensland on 6 November 1944; his memorial is at Atherton War Cemetery, Queensland.

The church's only AIF recruit, Signalman Archie Fingher was born 17 January 1921. A Signalman in 8 Division Signals he was taken a prisoner of war and died of illness in Borneo; he is remembered on the Labuan Memorial, Malaysia. Dental Apprentice Herbert Lloyd Pritchard was stationed on HMAS Sydney with the RAN when he was killed in action in the Indian Ocean on 20 November 1941; he is remembered with so many others on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, U.K.

References & Acknowledgements

AWM Roll of Honour; NAA: B883, VX58301; Argus, 3 July 1943, p.2; Harry Hatton, 'Ascot Vale Methodist Church 1888-1963: a church history', (typescript), p.25; CWGC.