The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (24647) Flight Sergeant William Ronald Andrew, No. 9 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (24647) Flight Sergeant William Ronald Andrew, No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

24647 Flight Sergeant William Ronald Andrew, No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 13 August 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 26 January 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant William Ronald Andrew, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born on 8 December 1921 in the town of Dalby in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, William Andrew was the son of Hugh and Mary Andrew. Growing up in the town of Bell in the Western Downs, the young Andrew was a keen cricketer. He attended the local state school, but left after completing seventh grade, taking up employment as a farmhand and labourer on a local wheat farm.

Andrew worked on the farm for five years before enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 February 1941. Aged 19, he spent the first period of his service in the RAAF working as a messman for No. 24 Squadron at Bankstown. After eight months working in the mess, Andrew was granted permission to train as an aircrew member, and commenced training as an air gunner. He embarked in October 1943 for overseas service.

As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Andrew was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

After his arrival in Britain, Andrew undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force in July 1944. As part of the RAFs Bomber Command, the squadron was equipped with four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bombers.

Andrew had been with the squadron for a month when, on 13 August, the Lancaster in which he was the rear gunner was shot down by flak during a daylight mission to bomb U-Boat pens and shipping in the harbour at Brest on the western coast of France. Other crews reported that the Lancaster had a wing tip shot off before it dived and crashed into the ground.

All of Andrew’s crewmates were killed, including Australian Flight Sergeants Charles Herbert, John Scott, Cyril Scott, and Douglas McConville, and their British crewmates pilot Flight Lieutenant Edward Relton and Sergeant Frederick Johnson.

William Andrew was 22 years old.

The bodies of the crew were recovered from the crash and Andrew was buried in the Hottot Les Baques Cemetery, south east of Bayeux, France. The epitaph upon his gravestone, chosen by his family, reads: “Duty nobly done”.

Andrew’s name is listed here 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 Flight Sergeant William Ronald Andrew, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section