Ken's portrait and a Crago Snowdrift flour bag will appear in the Bathurst Remembers World War 2 Exhibition 2021 being held later this year to mark VJ Day and the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War 2.

The exhibition will run from Friday, August 13 to Monday, August 16 and will be open from 9am to 5pm, except Monday which closes at 4pm.

The four-day event will be held at the Bathurst Showground.

The exhibition consists of "Snapshots of World War 2", some 600 enlarged photos and over 1200 PowerPoint images; and a "Wall of Valour" with more than 130 enlarged photos of World War 2 servicemen and women with an association with Bathurst who enlisted and served, including Warrant Officer Ken Meadley.

Guest exhibitors will display more than 3000 military items and World War 2 memorabilia, uniforms, a World War 2 model railway, military vehicles, medals, RAAF and POW items, a rustic military picture theatre showing World War 2 newsreels and more.

Ken Meadley, number 439816, later joined the RAAF, later becoming a leading aircraftman and air gunner.

He enlisted in Sydney on July 31, 1943, serving with the Commonwealth Empire Training Scheme in Winnipeg in Canada and later England.

Ken got his first job at the Smalls Arms factory in Lithgow in 1940. He would leave early on each Monday morning and ride his bicycle from Bathurst to Lithgow.

He stayed with his Aunty Marg in Lawrence Street in Lithgow and on Fridays he would ride his pushbike back to Bathurst.

After working in Lithgow for nine months he obtained employment at the Bathurst Small Arms Factory on Blayney Road in 1941.

Ken worked there for nine months before announcing he wanted to join the army, which he did on August 26, 1942, though his father did not approve.

Ken underwent 11 months of army training at Albury Wodonga, Greta and Puckapunyal. Then Ken served as Lance Corporal, N348682, 1st Australian Motor Training Regiment at Bathurst from November 11, 1941, until his transfer to the RAAF on July 30, 1943.

Interestingly, Ken owned some homing pigeons so that when Ken joined the services, he asked John and Elmo to look after them, however they sold them, but the pigeons kept returning home.

Upon joining the RAAF Ken was stationed at Bradfield Park for three months and after Basic Training he left Australia on beard a troopship on November 4 for San Francisco, then onto Toronto and Winnipeg in Alberta in Canada. He also did some training in Calgary.

The Empire Training Scheme was one of the most technically challenging training regimes of World War 2.

There were many different sections that pilots and the other crew members went through

The scheme had been formed in 1939 to supply aircrew from the Dominions mainly to the Royal Air Force in Britain and other locations.

The agreement was to train some 50,000 aircrew a year with the men arriving from those Dominions who signed the document to be trained. Training in Canada usually took about a year.

Whilst Ken was training in Canada his family posted comfort parcels to him. The contents often included lead pencils, socks, fruit cake, toothbrushes, tinned fruit, soap, powered milk, dried apple and chocolate bars.

With his training over he left Canada on August 29, 1944, for England, arriving in Brighton. Sergeant Meadley then went to RAF Morton-in-Marsh No 21 Operational Training Unit flying mainly in Vickers Wellington bombers.

Then it was on to RAF Woolsington at Whitley Bay near Newcastle. He was still training when war ended.

For further details on the World War 2 exhibition, contact curator Alan McRae on 6331 5404 or email amcrae@lisp.com.au.