RAAF photo help requested.

[galgos]

Gents,
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this photo which I was given last year. The pilot on the right is Rowland Telford Ward, KIA on 3 March 1945 serving with 467 squadron. Notes on the back of the photo say the guy on the left is Billy Gray. I'm trying to find out who he may be, any advice welcomed.
Regards
Max

[Larry]

A quick search of CWWG site shows no William Gray as KIA so that suggests he survived the war.

I looked up B Gray too in case he was a Bill rather than a William and out of interest wonder if in that period people were actually baptised as Bill.

Bill Gray has wings so must have been a pilot but its hard to make out whether his shoulder badge says Australia; it could possibly be Canada

[galgos]

Thank you Larry. I've been working on the assumption tha Billy was Australian and that Rolly may have been on a training course with him. I've been through all the "W Grays" and "* W Grays" in the Australian Nominal Roll; I don't believe there are any contenders from the former, though one or two possibilities with the latter, but unfortunately their files are not yet examined let alone digitised, though I have requested this. Another colleague has also suggested Canadian so that's a route I need to explore.
The odd thing also is the date written on the back which says Winter 1943. Again I'm assuming Rolly is an officer in this photo since he's not wearing his Sergeant's/Flight Sergeant's stripes, but he didn't receive his commission until January 1945, so the date could be wrong.
Regards
Max

[johnboy]

Have you tried the Australian website "WW2 Nominal Roll"? There are some twenty William Grays listed there having served in the RAAF.

John

[galgos]

Yes John, as I said in the post above yours, I've been through all of those and eliminated most for one reason or another. Of those that are potentially "eligible" not many have their A9301/A9300's digitised.
Max

[Larry]

Just a thought; it is easy to mistake 5 for a 3 and vice versa in '20th century hand writing' so it could be 1945 especially if his rank appears to match the date he got promotion. On the other hand I have seen photos where a person borrows a jacket from someone for a joke and future generations assume it's a persons rank! However I don't think this is the case here.

By the way have you considered Grey or Grady - depending how bad the hand writing is on the back of the photo!