The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (414872) Flight Sergeant Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson, No. 611 Squadron, Royal Air Force Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2018.1.1.271
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 28 September 2018
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (414872) Flight Sergeant Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson, No. 611 Squadron, Royal Air Force Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

414872 Flight Sergeant Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson, No. 611 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
Killed in flying battle 14 June 1944
Story delivered 28 September 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson.

Born in Brisbane on 11 July 1923, Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson was the son of Robert and Ida Wilson.

Growing up, the young Maurice Wilson attended Graceville State School and Talinga State School before going to Brisbane Boys’ College. A keen sportsman, he played tennis, cricket and football, as well as taking part in rowing and athletics.

When he finished school, Wilson undertook further tuition to qualify as an insurance clerk for the Halifax Insurance Company in Eagle Street, Brisbane.
On 10 November 1941, when he was 18, Wilson enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a pilot.

On 6 March 1943, Wilson embarked in Melbourne 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.

After arriving in Britain in April 1943, Wilson undertook further specialist training before being posted on 7 June 1944 to No. 611 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
No. 611 Squadron was a fighter squadron equipped with Spitfires. At the time when Wilson joined the squadron – just a day after the D-Day Normandy landings on the 6th of June – the squadron was based at RAF Deanland in Sussex.

After about a week with the squadron, Wilson was undertaking a patrol over the landing area in Normandy in support of the Allied ground forces, providing fighter cover for other aircraft. He was shot down by enemy fighters south of Caen, in the Bougy area.

In a letter to Wilson’s mother, the commanding officer of No. 611 Squadron wrote: “When some 25 miles south-west of Caen, the squadron ran into a formation of German fighters who slightly outnumbered us. A general dog-fight ensued and your son called on the radio to say his aircraft had been hit. Two members of the Squadron saw his aircraft being attacked by an ME 109, but they were heavily engaged at the time and unable to go to his assistance, nor did they see what happened to him subsequently.”

Maurice Wilson was killed in action at the age of 20.

His body was recovered from the wreckage of his Spitfire, and he was buried in the communal cemetery in the small village of Culey-Le-Patry, 26 km south-west of Caen.

Wilson’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, 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 Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (414872) Flight Sergeant Maurice Keith Hasard Wilson, No. 611 Squadron, Royal Air Force Second World War. (video)