The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (426915) Flight Sergeant Bruce Stanley Richmond, No. 432 Squadron, Royal Canadian 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 (426915) Flight Sergeant Bruce Stanley Richmond, No. 432 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, Second World War.

426915 Flight Sergeant Bruce Stanley Richmond, No. 432 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
KIA 23 May 1944
Story delivered 24 April 2017

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Bruce Richmond.

Bruce Stanley Richmond was born on 23 July 1920 in Rockhampton, Queensland, to John and Constance Richmond.

Attending Rockhampton High School, the young Bruce Richmond was a keen sportsman who played tennis and cricket and was involved in swimming. Upon finishing school in 1935, Richmond attended the local teachers’ training college from which he graduated in 1937.

Working for the Queensland Department of Education, Richmond was a teacher at the Mount Emlyn State School near Millmerran in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, when he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 1 August 1942.

Commencing training as a navigator, Richmond embarked for overseas service in May 1943. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme he was one of almost 27,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who, throughout the course of the war, joined British and Commonwealth squadrons in Britain.

Arriving in the United Kingdom in July 1943, Richmond undertook further specialist training before being posted in March 1944 to No. 432 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force. As part of Bomber Command, No. 432 Squadron flew the four engine Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber.

On the night of 22 May 1944, Richmond was involved in a raid on the railway yards at Le Mans, France. The raid was part of an operation in support of the imminent Allied invasion of France. The Halifax he was navigating crashed. He and all six of his Canadian crewmates were killed. He was 23 years of age.

Richmond is buried alongside his crewmates in the Le Mans West British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in Le Mans, France.

His 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 courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Flight Sergeant Bruce Stanley Richmond, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section