The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (410405) Pilot Officer Jack Murray Clyde Wilson, No. 100 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (410405) Pilot Officer Jack Murray Clyde Wilson, No. 100 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

410405 Pilot Officer Jack Murray Clyde Wilson, No. 100 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 5 January 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 3 September 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Pilot Officer Jack Murray Clyde Wilson, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

The son of Alexander and Grace Wilson, Jack Wilson was born on 13 August 1915 in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh. As a youngster, he attended the Oakleigh State School before attending Melbourne Boys’ High School.

In November 1941 Wilson married Olwen Alys Hubbard in the Christ Church in Essendon. They had one daughter together, Rosemary Wilson. When war broke out Wilson was working for the British-Australasian Tobacco Company, located in A’Beckett Street, Melbourne.

On 6 December 1941 Wilson enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a wireless operator. In January 1943 he embarked for overseas service as one of almost 16,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Royal Air Force squadrons in Britain as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme.

Arriving in England in March 1943, Wilson undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 100 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in October 1944. Equipped with the four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber the squadron was part of Bomber Command.

On the night of 5 January 1945, the Lancasters of No. 100 Squadron were taking part in a bombing raid over Hanover, Germany. The Lancaster in which Wilson was the wireless operator was shot down while returning from this mission. Wilson and all six of his British crewmates were killed.

Pilot Officer Wilson was 29. His body is buried alongside his British crewmembers in the Gorssel General Cemetery in the Netherlands.

Writing to Wilson’s wife, the commander of No. 100 Squadron said that Jack Wilson was very popular among his colleagues, “a most capable and efficient wireless operator and his Captain and crew had the utmost confidence in him”.

His name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others who died while serving in the Second World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Pilot Officer Jack Murray Clyde Wilson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section