The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (408909) Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Augustine Lynch, No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second Wolrd 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (408909) Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Augustine Lynch, No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second Wolrd War.

408909 Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Augustine Lynch, No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 28 August 1943
Story delivered 9 May 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Augustine Lynch.

Born in the small town of Rochester in central Victoria on 28 November 1919, Geoffrey Augustine Lynch was the son of Andrew and Theodora Lynch.

Prior to his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force in Melbourne on 20 June 1941, Geoffrey Lynch had been working as a clerk. Following enlistment he began training as a navigator.

In 1942 he embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Lynch 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.

After arriving in Britain, Lynch undertook further specialist training before being posted in August 1943 to No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
As part of the RAF Bomber Command, No. 207 squadron was equipped with the four engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

Lynch had only been with the squadron for a matter of weeks when he was killed in action during a raid over Germany.

On the night of 27-28 August, the Lancaster in which Lynch was the navigator was shot down near Nuremberg, Germany, by a nightfighter.

Lynch, and all six of his crewmates were killed. They were fellow Australians, Flying Officer Hugh John McCulloch, Flight Sergeant Keeble Charles French, Flying Officer John Richard Welch, and British airmen, Sergeant Leslie Thomas Reynolds, Sergeant James Seddon and Sergeant Arthur Herbert Whetton.

Geoffrey Lynch was 23 years old.

His body was recovered and he was buried alongside his crewmates at the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at Durnbach, south of Munich, Germany.

His name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on your right, among almost 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 Geoffrey Augustine Lynch who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section