The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (80471) Flight Sergeant Arnold Lockyer, No. 24 Squadron RAAF, 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 (80471) Flight Sergeant Arnold Lockyer, No. 24 Squadron RAAF, Second World War.

80471 Flight Sergeant Arnold Lockyer, No. 24 Squadron RAAF
KIA 21 August 1945

Story delivered 5 July 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Arnold Lockyer.

Arnold Alexander Lockyer was born in May 1915, the second son of six children (five sons and a daughter) of Horace Samuel and Sylvie Lockyer (née Whalebone), of Mallina Station in the Roebourne Shire in Western Australia.

A Kariyarra Ngarluma man with European heritage, Lockyer attended Roebourne and Whim Creek State Schools before working as a station hand, wood-cutter, labourer, and driver in the north-west. He then moved to Perth to start his own business as a contract-carrier. He was strongly built and a good athlete, excelling at boxing, running, swimming, and horse riding. He was also fascinated by internal-combustion engines, and made all mechanical repairs to vehicles his employers operated. Lokyer married Susanna Clarke in 1936 and the couple went on to have three sons.

Lockyer was one of five brothers to serve during the Second World War. As Indigenous men, they were motivated in attaining citizenship rights as well as serving their country. While it was deemed “neither necessary nor desirable” for Indigenous men to enlist in the army, the Royal Australian Air Force accepted qualified non-Europeans to meet the manpower needs of the Empire Air Training Scheme. Lockyer enlisted in the RAAF in May 1942. After qualifying as mechanical ground-staff, he was posted to No. 17 Repair and Servicing Unit at Cunderin in Western Australia. Longing to join the aircrew, he undertook an air gunnery course at Sale in Victoria and operational training at Tocumwal in New South Wales. He was promoted to sergeant and sent to the Heavy Bomber Refresher Training Unit at Nazab in New Guinea.

After returning to Australia, Lockyer joined No. 24 Squadron RAAF at Fenton in the Northern Territory where he was a flight engineer for an aircrew of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator. After further promotion to flight sergeant, Lockyer deployed with the squadron to Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies. From July 1945, the squadron operated from Balikpapan, conducting bombing raids against Japanese targets in support of the Allied attacks on Borneo.

On 27 July the Liberator bomber in which Lockyer was a crew member was brought down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and crashed near Tomohon village. Having parachuted to safety, Lockyer and two other crewmen were captured and imprisoned at Kaaten in North Celebes. Although Japan surrendered on the 15th of August, Lockyer and another airman remained at Kaaten for a further five days before losing their lives. The Japanese guards responsible were later found guilty of war crimes.

Aged 30 at the time of his death, Lockyer is buried at the Ambon War Cemetery in Indonesia. Of the five Lockyer brothers to have served in the Second World War, just two returned home.

Lockyer’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 Flight Sergeant Arnold Lockyer, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section