A Kapunda farming family’s extraordinary sacrifice during World War II has been honoured in the Soldiers’ Memorial Garden, supported by funding from the Veterans SA 80^th Anniversary of the end of World War II Grant Fund.

The memorial, Saving Airman Giles, tells the true story of Claude and Mary Giles. Between 1943 and 1945, three of their four sons – all aged under 30 – died whilst serving for Australia in WWII.

For the Giles family, only weeks lapsed between being notified that Donald, aged 26, had been killed in a Baltimore aircraft during an operation over Crete in Greece (23 July 1943), and the devastating news that son, Leslie, aged 22, had been killed in an aircraft accident in East Sale, Victoria (13 September 1943).

But heartbreak was to strike the family yet again.

On 5 April 1945, Claude, Mary, and daughter, Patricia, received a third knock at the door of their home on Coghill Street, Kapunda.

Sydney, aged 29, had been killed in action at Mawaraka on Bougainville Island.

The storyline accompanying the Saving Airman Giles memorial tells how the remaining son, Colin, initially rejected his parents’ request not to join the war effort having received his wings as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force.

However, he relented whilst awaiting deployment and was discharged on 21 June 1945, aged 24, six weeks after Sydney’s death.

Colin returned to Kapunda and became a farmer at Allendale North. He married Betty Rogers, and they had three children. Colin died in 1975, aged 54.

The heart wrenching story of the Giles family was unearthed by Tony Hersey, Kapunda RSL’s publicity officer who submits historical articles to the local newspaper.

Tony, who served in the Australian Army in Vietnam between 1969 and 1970, noticed that the surname Giles was marked four times on the Kapunda WWII honour roll.

“It took a while to find anyone who knew about it, eventually I got in touch with Trevor, the son of Colin – the surviving brother – and he helped me a great deal,” Tony said.

“It’s important to help educate the community about wars so people don’t become complacent, and for young people to become more patriotic by knowing their local history.”

The Saving Airman Giles memorial is part of an ongoing project to rejuvenate the Kapunda Soldiers’ Memorial Garden and tell the stories of local servicemen and women for the benefit of future generations.

The memorial was supported by $6,360 in grant funding from the 80^th Anniversary of the end of World War II Grant Fund, managed by Veterans SA on behalf of the Government of South Australia.