The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (412860) Flight Sergeant Frederick Cecil Taylor, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (412860) Flight Sergeant Frederick Cecil Taylor, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

412860 Flight Sergeant Frederick Cecil Taylor, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
Killed in flying battle 25 July 1943
Story delivered 27 August 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Aubrey Frederick Cecil Taylor.

Frederick Taylor was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, on 14 August 1915, one of two sons and four daughters born to Charles and Edith Taylor.
After completing his education, Frederick went on to work as an Assistant Shire Clerk in Gilgandra.

He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 20 July 1941, and began training as a flight navigator. After initial training in Australia, he embarked for overseas service.

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

After his arrival in Britain, Taylor undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force.

No. 460 Squadron would become the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, and the squadron that suffered the highest casualties. Flying twin-engined Vickers Wellingtons medium bombers and then four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, the squadron lost over 1,000 men: Australian, British, Canadians, New Zealanders and South Africans. Almost 600 Australians from 460 Squadron are listed here on the Roll of Honour.

On the night of 24–25 July 1943, 26 Lancasters from No. 460 Squadron were taking part in large bombing raid on the German city of Hamburg. As part of the Battle of Hamburg, known as Operation Gomorrah, the raid was part of bombing offensive on the German city by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force that had commenced that night, and would last for a week. Taylor was killed in action when the Lancaster in which he was the navigator was shot down by flak.

Taylor, and all six of his crewmates were killed in action. The crew were buried side by side in a collective grave in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in Becklingen, Germany.

Frederick Taylor was 27 years old.

His 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 Frederick Cecil Taylor, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section