The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (413048) Warrant Officer Berry Lemington Ulrick, 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 Andrew Smith, the story for this day was on (413048) Warrant Officer Berry Lemington Ulrick, No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

413048 Warrant Officer Berry Lemington Ulrick, No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Accidentally killed 5 June 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 28 June 2015

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Berry Lemington Ulrick, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force in 1944.

Born on 14 April 1922 in Nyngan, in the Bogan Shire area of central New South Wales, Berry Ulrick was the son of Lemington and Vera Ulrick.

Berry Ulrick attended Coffs Harbour High School from 1934 to 1940. He was a top student in maths and sciences and received the Intermediate Certificate. He also represented his school in football and tennis, and served as a sergeant in the school cadet corps. A surfer too, he was the North Coast Junior Champion in 1938–39 and 1939–40. He was also a keen musician, and played both the violin and the piano.

Following high school, Ulrick worked as a clerk at the Vacuum Oil Company in Coffs Harbour, until he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 15 August 1941. Once in the RAAF, Ulrick began training as a pilot, and in August 1942 he embarked from Sydney 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. He was transferred to India in May 1943, where he was posted to No. 146 Squadron, Royal Air Force. Based in Calcutta, No. 146 Squadron was a fighter squadron which flew the single-engine Hawker Hurricane.

On 5 June, while undertaking a routine flight from Madras to Yellahanka, Ulick was in a flying accident which caused multiple injuries and burns from which he did not recover.

He was 22 years of age.

Ulrick is buried in the British and Commonwealth War Graves Madras War Cemetery in Chennai, India.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, with some 40,000 others who died during 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 Berry Lemington Ulrick, and all those Australians who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section