The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (437031) Warrant Officer Allan Oliver Walkington, No. 194 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 Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (437031) Warrant Officer Allan Oliver Walkington, No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

437031 Warrant Officer Allan Oliver Walkington, No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 20 June 1945

Story delivered 12 April 2017

Today we pay tribute to Warrant Officer Allan Walkington.

Born in the town of Terowie in the mid north of South Australia on 26 July 1921, Allan Oliver Walkington was the son of Oliver Edgar Walkington and Myrtle Flora Maud Walkington.

The young Allan Walkington attended the local Terowie school, and then Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. Following his schooling, he was employed as a bank officer at E.S. & A. Bank.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Walkington served in the Militia, before transferring to the Royal Australian Air Force on 10 October 1942. In April 1942 he was engaged to a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force.

Following his enlistment in the RAAF, Walkington commenced training as a wireless operator and before long embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Wilson was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined squadrons based in Britain.

Before arriving in Britain, Walkington spent several months undertaking specialist training in Canada. While there, he appears to have been engaged a second time, to a woman living in Winnipeg.

After completing his training in Canada, and then in Britain, he served in operational squadrons in Bomber Command and Transport Command.

In February 1945, he was transferred to No. 194 Squadron, Royal Air Force, a transport squadron equipped with Douglas Dakota DC-3s. At the time Walkington joined the squadron, it was based at Akyab in
Arakan, on the western coast of Burma (the country today known as Myanmar).

During the Burma campaign, the Dakotas of No. 194 flew supplies to the front lines, dropped supplies to Chindit units, and helped evacuate wounded.

On 20 June 1945, the Dakota in which Walkington was the wireless operator was returning from a successful mission delivering supplies to Meiktila in central Burma. Heavy rain or mist obscured a mountain peak south east of Kyaukpyu in western Burma, which caused the plane to crash, killing all four crew: Walkington, his Australian crewmate Flight Lieutenant Neil William Neelands, and their British crewmates – Wing Commander Robert Cree Crawford, and Flight Lieutenant Frank Malcom Forrester.

In a letter home to Walkington’s family, the commander of 194 Squadron wrote that Walkington was

popular and respected as a very able wireless operator. Whilst he was with us he has been engaged on carrying urgently needed supplies into Burma and it was returning from a sortie after successfully landing their load that he met his death. I am proud to say that it was due to the unflagging efforts and total disregard for self of your son, and many others like him, that such a speedy advance through Burma was made possible. On this, his last trip, he was flying as wireless operator in a crew captained by our Squadron Commander, and that in itself is proof of the confidence reposed in his him as an efficient and willing crew member … May I add that we have lost an admired and respected friend, but we remember he has made the highest sacrifice permitted to man for the cause of freedom, and there is consolation in that thought.

Allan Walkington was 23 years old.

His remains are buried in the Taukkyan War Cemetery at Mingaladon, just outside Yangon, Myanmar.

On his gravestone, his family chose the following words as his epitaph:
His presence out greatest pleasure, memory now our dearest treasure

Walkington’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 Warrant Officer Allan Oliver Walkington, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant Historian, Military History Section