The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (400886) Flying Officer William Alexander Clegg, 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Charis May, the story for this day was on (400886) Flying Officer William Alexander Clegg, 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

400886 Flying Officer William Alexander Clegg, No. 460 Squadron, RAF
KIA 13 August 1942
Photograph: P00270.012

Story delivered 17 January 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer William Alexander Clegg, whose photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

William Clegg was born in 1916 to Joseph and Gladys Clegg of Ballarat. He was educated at Ballarat High School and went on to study at the Federal Institute of Accountants. He worked as an accountant and salesman for his father's leather merchant company.

Bill Clegg enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 10 November 1940, and underwent training in Australia and Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. The purpose of this scheme was to provide pilots and aircrew from Commonwealth countries to the British Royal Air Force, but when Clegg arrived in Britain he was posted to a newly established Australian Bomber Squadron within the RAF - No. 460. The first aircraft of which he became crew was christened "Sundowner", and was decorated with a picture of a swagman standing on a boomerang carrying a number of bombs. Underneath, the pilot had written, "Get a load of this." He flew with this aircraft on a number of operational flights over Germany.

In August 1942, promoted to Flight Officer and captain of his own aircraft, Bill Clegg and his crew of four took off from RAF Breighton in a Wellington bomber. No communication was received from their aircraft after the take-off, and they failed to return from their scheduled bombing run to the German city of Mainz in the Rhineland. The German authorities later sent word that they had buried members of the crew of a Wellington, and the RAF determined that this was probably Clegg and his crew.

After the war, inquiries established that the aircraft had crashed in the early hours of 13 August 1942 at Eisden in Belgium, close to the Dutch and German borders. The crew were found buried nearby: Flight Officer Clegg and his Wireless Operator Air Gunner Sergeant Mayne in one grave; the navigator, bomb aimer and air gunner together in another. They were later reinterred in Heverlee War Cemetery in Belgium. William Clegg was 26 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Flying Officer William Alexander Clegg, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.