Avro Anson Memorial
| Coordinates | 31°45′07″S 116°33′40″E / 31.7519°S 116.5611°ECoordinates: 31°45′07″S 116°33′40″E / 31.7519°S 116.5611°E |
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| Location | Arvo Anson Road near Clackline, Western Australia |
| Type | Cairn |
| Length | 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) |
| Width | 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) |
| Height | 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) |
| Completion date | 12 December 1942 |
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The Avro Anson Memorial, also known as the RAAF Anson Aircraft Memorial,Air Disaster Memorial, or Mokine Memorial, commemorates four Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airmen killed when their Avro Anson aircraft crashed near Clackline, Western Australia on 9 October 1942. The memorial, assembled by members of the local community in the months following the crash, features a cairn of granite and boulders supporting a jarrah cross. The names and details of the deceased airmen − Flying Officer Lynton Birt, Sergeant Geoffrey Debenham, Sergeant Noel Nixon, and Sergeant Kenneth Hugo − are carved into the cross. Birt was interred in the Northam Cemetery, and later reinterred in the Perth war cemetery and annex (N.A.8) while the others were buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.
Over the years, the memorial was forgotten and lost, overgrown by shrubs and trees. Upon its rediscovery in the early 1980s, the memorial's history and significance were researched, and it was restored in 1984 by volunteers from the Perth branch of the Royal Australian Air Force Association. Since then, the association has held annual memorial services at the site. In 2013, the Northam RSL spent $14,700 on safety and accessibility works, funded by Lotterywest and the Northam RSL.
On 9 October 1942, an Avro Anson aircraft (No. W2262), piloted by Sergeant Geoffrey Debenham and carrying Flying Officer Lynton Birt, Sergeant Noel Nixon, and Sergeant Kenneth Hugo, crashed near Clackline, Western Australia. The airmen, all from 68 Reserve Squadron based at Geraldton, were on a training mission, flying from Cunderdin to Pearce air force base. Partway along what should have been a routine flight, the aircraft crashed and burned, leaving no survivors, and destroying the aircraft.
Kenneth Colin (Les) Hugo was born in Perth, and attended school at Armadale. He went on to study at Perth Technical College, and then worked in the Vacuum Oil Company's Perth office. According to his father, he was a "lover of sport", enjoying cricket, football, swimming and yachting. Hugo enlisted in the air force in 1941, where he was a wireless operator air-gunner. He was 21 at the time of the crash.
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