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Gough Whitlam’s service as a navigator with the RAAF is recorded in a number of series at the National Archives of Australia and Australian War Memorial. It is also recorded online on the World War Two Nominal Roll (ww2roll.gov.au). Whitlam served with Squadron No. 13 in the Pacific. His letters to family from that time are held in the National Library of Australia. The Whitlam Institute holds a collection of photographs taken mainly while Gough Whitlam was stationed at Gove in the Northern Territory in 1945, with RAAF Squadron No. 13 as air force navigator.

National Archives of Australia

RAAf OffICeRS PeRSONNeL fILeS, 1921–48 A9300

Recorded by: 1921–48 Air Services Office, Department of Air (CA 35) Canberra 364 metres

This series was created in 1921 (at the same time as the RAAF itself) to hold personal and service history information on individual RAAF officers, including personal history prior to appointment and subsequent to separation. There is also a photographic listing.

Whitlam, edward gough, 1939–48 A9300, Whitlam e g

This item is Gough Whitlam’s personal file. It details where and when he enlisted, his service and discharge.

PAy HISTORy AND LeDgeR CARDS; ALLOTmeNT HISTORy AND LeDgeR CARDS

(membeRS Of THe RAAf), 1939–65 SP504/1

Recorded by: 1942–65 Area Finance Office, NSW, Sydney (CA 1019) 1942–65 Department of Air (CA 35)

Sydney 181 metres

This series consists of pay and allotment history, individual payments and deductions, tax, promotion, superannuation and so on. There are pay history cards, pay history and ledger cards, allotment history cards and allotment history and ledger cards.

edward gough Whitlam, 1939–48 SP504/1, 423371

This item is Gough Whitlam’s personal file.

RAAf PeRSONNeL fILeS Of NON-COmmISSIONeD OffICeRS AND OTHeR

RANKS, 1921–48 A9301

Recorded by: 1921–48 Air Services Branch; Department of Air Central Office (CA 35) Canberra 2.5 kilometres

This series was created in 1921 to hold personal and service history information such as medical history, promotions and so on, on individual RAAF members who were not officers, including personal history prior to appointment and subsequent to separation.

Education, early life and career 39

Whitlam, freda Leslie, 1939–48 A9301, 176974

Gough Whitlam’s sister Freda enlisted in the RAAF during World War II. She was a non-commissioned officer. This item is her personal file.

PHOTOgRAPHS ReLATINg TO gOUgH WHITLAm’S PARLIAmeNTARy TeRm

Of OffICe, CHRONOLOgICAL SeRIeS, 1952–78 m155

Recorded by: 1952–78 Department of the House of Representatives – Member for Werriwa (Leader of the Opposition) (CA 692)

1972–75 The Hon. Edward Gough Whitlam AC, QC (CP 99) Sydney 3.7 metres

These photographs cover Gough Whitlam’s activities during his Parliamentary career from the time he became the Member for Werriwa until he retired from parliament in 1978. There are also some early photographs of Gough Whitlam in the RAAF.

bomber aircrew, Canberra, 1943 m155, b34

Squadron No. 13 was stationed briefly in Canberra in 1943 for re-equipping. Gough Whitlam stayed with his parents and often had his crew over for dinner. Also in this photograph is Whitlam’s Pilot Officer, Lex Goudie, with whom Whitlam, as navigator, flew in the Pacific. The two formed a lifelong friendship.

National Library of Australia

WHITLAm, gOUgH, LeTTeRS, 1936–51 mS 7653

Quantity 0.3 metres

This series comprises letters written by Gough Whitlam to his parents and sister between 1936 and 1951. They cover his time at Sydney University, in the Sydney University Regiment, with the RAAF, starting married life with Margaret Whitlam (née Dovey) in Sydney, and his early career as a barrister.

gough Whitlam, ‘D’s Company’, Sydney University Regiment, menangle Park, to ‘Parents and freda’, 22 January 1940

Gough Whitlam, along with other St Paul’s College boys, enlisted in the Sydney University Regiment. Whitlam wrote with annoyance at being ‘compulsorily transferred from “A Company” to “D’s” (called “Don Support”)’. ‘A’ was a rifle company with better guns. He described his time in the Regiment: ‘I’m not very mechanically minded, and I’m not physically too well suited to the work. I’m too tall to wrap myself round the [Vickers] gun or bend down to take difficult sights when sitting behind it. And I think I’m too heavy to be flinging myself down besides parts of the guns on the hard ground, in the unremitting drill.’

gough Whitlam, Prince Henry Hospital, Little bay Sydney, to ‘Parents and freda’, 2 february 1940

Gough Whitlam, along with many others in the regiment, had come down with German measles. He wrote: ‘I don’t feel at all bad, and many people regard this sort of affliction with unconcealed joy.’ He asked his parents to send him Heath’s Practical French Grammar and ‘a Murphy’, so he could use his time convalescing to practise his French.

gough Whitlam, 13 Squadron, RAAf, bradfield Park NSW, to ‘Parents and freda’, 22 June 1942

Gough Whitlam spent time at the Bradfield Park RAAF training school. He wrote that he was homesick: ‘…in none of my campaigns have I felt so nostalgic, in the literal sense, of aching to return home.’

gough Whitlam, 3 Squadron, RAAf, bradfield Park NSW, to ‘Parents and freda’, 8 July 1942

Gough Whitlam wrote about his RAAF exams: ‘For the first time in nearly a decade I passed a Maths exam, coming top of our Flight, I think, in the first fortnightly paper set for all new trainees. I got 65%, out of a possible of 70% for the questions I did, the paper being very long.’

gough Whitlam, RAAf, bradfield Park NSW, to ‘Parents and freda’, 22 July 1942

Gough Whitlam wrote about the fast approach of final exams. He received 100 per cent in his second maths test.

gough Whitlam, RAAf, Cootamundra NSW, to ‘Parents and freda’, 3 December 1942

Whitlam wrote that his training period was coming to an end. He had impressed fellow students with his wit and wrote that ‘on the score of personality, I have established as big an ascendency as ever in College – and that among a wider number and type of persons and with less heartburning. Good for Juries.’