Leading Aircraftman Edward John Harland
Australian War MemorialEdward John Harland was born on 13 July 1924, in Dubbo, New South Wales, the youngest of six children born to Thomas and Margaret Harland. Known as “Ted” to his family and friends, Harland attended school as a boarder at St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, where he played in the first eleven cricket team, the first tennis team, and was elected president of the sports committee by his fellow students. His teachers described him as a likeable student, who was “trustworthy and ready to oblige”. Harland also helped his father work as a grazier on the family farm at Nimagee Station, west of Dubbo, and gained some experience working on motor vehicles.
On his 18th birthday, Harland wrote to the Royal Australian Air Force Headquarters in Sydney and asked them to send him the necessary paperwork to apply to serve. Within months, he had passed his medical tests, and on 20 October 1942 he formally enlisted into the RAAF as an aircraftman.
Harland began training, and showed an aptitude for mechanical work. In August 1943 he was promoted to the rank of leading aircraftman, and in November of that year transferred to the No. 1 Flying Boat Maintenance Unit. This unit, based at Bowen, near Hamilton Island in Queensland, serviced and reconditioned various military aircraft such as Catalinas, Martin Mariners, and Seagulls.
In March 1944, Harland was posted to the No. 7 Transport and Movements Office, a logistical support unit based in New Guinea. Harland moved with this unit from Milne Bay to Lae, where he worked as a fitter and emergency driver.
On the afternoon of 5 March 1945, Harland had completed a day’s duties when he and a friend, Sergeant George Minns, decided to go for a swim at a beach at Tadji, on New Guinea’s north coast. The pair had been in the water for about half an hour when they realised that they had drifted some distance out to sea and could no longer stand. They tried to swim back to shore, but a strong current was pulling them further and further out to sea.
Minns, a stronger swimmer than Harland, asked his mate if he was ok, and Harland responded only with a nod. It soon became clear to Minns that Harland was struggling in the rough ocean, and was becoming exhausted. Minns took Harland in his arms to help him stay afloat, and began to wave his arms for help.
Two Australian airmen, Leading Aircraftman Richard Mallard and Flight Sergeant Reginald Randall saw the struggling men, and jumped into the ocean to help them. Mallard later recounted that when he reached the pair, they were completely exhausted, and Minns passed Harland over to allow himself time to recover.
Another airman, Flight Sergeant Stanley Ivimey, who had seventeen years’ experience as a surf life-saver in New South Wales, rushed into the water with a lifeline to save the struggling men. He later reported that in all of his years life-saving it was the worst and most treacherous surf he had experienced.
As Ivimey drew close, a particularly large wave knocked Harland from Mallard’s grasp, and the exhausted airman sank into the waves. Mallard made a series of dives into the four-metre-deep water, looking for Harland, but in the churned up and sandy sea could not locate him. After several minutes searching, the exhausted men retired to the shore.
Harland was reported as missing, presumed drowned, and his body was never seen again. He was 20 years old.
Harland’s death came as a deep blow to the men of his unit. Randall, one of the men who had tried to rescue Harland from the waves, wrote to Harland’s family, “Among his many friends in this area and in this unit, Ted is the most popular, everyone considering him a lad of the cleanest living, highest ideals, and courage.”
His name is listed on the Lae Memorial in Papua New Guinea, which commemorates 325 Australian forces servicemen of the Second World War who have no known grave. He is also commemorated on a stained glass window in the chapel at his old school, St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.
- AWM Honour Roll https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1720891
