The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (411854) Warrant Officer Richmond Antony Barrett Blumer, No. 91 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (411854) Warrant Officer Richmond Antony Barrett Blumer, No. 91 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

411854 Warrant Officer Richmond Antony Barrett Blumer, No. 91 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Accidentally killed 26 June 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 22 June 2016

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Richmond Antony Barrett Blumer, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Sydney on 19 April 1921, Richmond Blumer was the son of Cecil Herbert Blumer and Alice Rubie Blumer of Croydon, New South Wales. He was known by his family as “Tony”, and by his Royal Air Force colleagues as “Red”, because of his red hair. As a young man he attended Fort Street Boys’ High School in Petersham, Sydney. A keen sportsman, he played football and cricket, and enjoyed horse riding, sailing, and swimming. He also had a passion for motorcycles.

Blumer was employed as an insurance clerk at AMP in Pitt Street, Sydney, when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 21 June 1941. He had previously served as a corporal in the Militia, where he was a dispatch rider, and now began training as a pilot.

Blumer embarked for overseas service in November 1941. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war. He travelled via San Francisco to Canada, where he spent the next year undertaking further specialist training.

In January 1943 Blumer arrived in Britain. He was posted to No. 91 (Nigeria) Squadron, Royal Air Force, which was equipped with Spitfires. On one occasion he was forced to bail out following a furious dogfight, and on landing in the sea he was lucky to be rescued without injury.

In November that year, Blumer’s Spitfire was hit during a raid on a railway in northern France. Last seen climbing into cloud with black smoke pouring from his engine, he was subsequently posted as missing. The following May, however, he returned to his squadron: after being shot down he was found by members of the resistance, who kept him hidden and assisted his passage to Switzerland from where he safely returned to Britain.

On the night of 25 June 1944 Blumer was involved in an operation to intercept and shoot down a V-1 flying bomb. On his return to his home airfield of West Malling, his Spitfire, flying at low altitude, went into a dive and crashed near Nettlesfield Green, only a few miles from the runway. Blumer was killed, aged 23.

His body is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, and on the 50th anniversary of the crash a memorial was dedicated at the Nettlesfield site.

Warrant Officer Blumer’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving 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 Richmond Antony Barrett Blumer, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.