The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (416968) Warrant Officer Malcolm Clair Keightley, No. 146 Squadron, Royal 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 , the story for this day was on (416968) Warrant Officer Malcolm Clair Keightley, No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

416968 Warrant Officer Malcolm Clair Keightley, No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 24 April 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 31 March 2015

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Malcolm Clair Keightley, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force in 1945.

Born in Keswick, South Australia, on 17 December 1922, Malcolm was the son of Herbert and Amy Keightley. The young Keightley attend the Unley Central School in 1935 before attending Adelaide High School from 1936 to 1938. A keen sportsman, Keightley played football, cricket, soccer, and tennis and enjoyed hiking and swimming.

Following highschool, Keightley worked as an accounts and sales clerk before enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force on 8 November 1941. He began training as a pilot and in January 1943 embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme he was one of almost 16,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Royal Air Force squadrons throughout the course of the war.

Once in Britain he undertook further specialist training until completing his training. In March 1944 he was transferred to India, where he was posted to No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force. Based in Calcutta, No. 146 Squadron was a fighter squadron flying the single-engine Hawker Hurricane until June 1944, when it flew the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

It was on an operation over southern Burma on 24 April 1945 in which the P-47 Thunderbolt piloted by Keightley crashed. Suffering fatal injuries, he died aged 22.
His body is buried in the British and Commonwealth Rangoon War Cemetery in Yangon, Myanmar.

Keightley’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Warrant Officer Malcolm Clair Keightley, and all of those Australians who gave their lives during the Second World War.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section