Port Pirie Garden of Memory Cemetery and Port Pirie War Cemetery
RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.The Port Pirie Garden of Memory Cemetery was established in 1961 by a committee of ex-servicemen from the three services and is dedicated to all Commonwealth and allied servicemen and women who served their country in peace and war. It consists or a central cenotaph, flag pole, concrete paths, lawns, rose gardens, entry piers and more recently a rotunda shelter and bench seating. There are 790 servicemen and women interred in the Port Pirie Garden of Memory Cemetery.
By the end of the Second World War in 1945, The Royal Australian Air Force (R.A.A.F.) was 154,511 strong, of whom 137,208 were serving in the South West Pacific region during the war. The R.A.A.F. suffered over 10,200 casualties, including 6,357 killed or missing in action, 160 who died as prisoners of war and 2,800 lost in flying accidents. The majority of aircrew and ground support staff were based and trained in Air Force establishments spread across Australia including Port Pirie.
Port Pirie War Cemetery contains 20 burials of R.A.A.F aircrew from No.2 Bombing and Gunnery School; later to become No.3 Observers School (Port Pirie R.A.A.F. Base). All but 1 died in air training accidents while the other died of illness. There are also 2 soldiers interred with Commonwealth War Grave Headstones below, who also died in accidents.
A further 3 aircrew died in flying accidents in Port Pirie during World War 2.
2nd Lieutenant Richard E. Pingree United States Air Force whose body was repatriated to the U.S.A. Leading Aircraftman Leslie G. Price who is interred in the Port Pirie Cemetery and Flight Sergeant Reuben M. Plummer who is Known unto God after his body was never recovered from a crash into the Spencer Gulf near Port Pirie. In the Sydney War Cemetery, his name is listed alongside 748 other men of the Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and the Australian Merchant Navy who lost their lives in the south-west Pacific region during the 1939-45 War, and who have no known grave.
