The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (421122) Flying Officer Colin Reginald Pickworth, 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 Alison Cray, the story for this day was on (421122) Flying Officer Colin Reginald Pickworth, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, Second World War.

421122 Flying Officer Colin Reginald Pickworth, No. 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force
Killed in flying battle 2 January 1944


Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Colin Reginald Pickworth.

Colin Pickworth was born on 30 June 1923 in Katoomba, New South Wales, the son of Sydney and Roma Pickworth.

Pickworth lived in St Mary’s in the western suburbs of Sydney, where he worked as an electrician.

On 7 December 1941, the 18-year-old enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as an airgunner. The following year, while he was training in Australia, he married Dorothy Robinson at Kurri Kurri.

Pickworth was lucky to survive a nasty accident during his early training. When the plane in which he was a crewmember crashed into a motor tender, one of his crewmates was killed. Pickworth and eight others were injured.

After completing his initial training in Australia, Pickworth 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.

Arriving in Britain, Pickworth was 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 Wellington 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 2 January 1942, the Lancaster in which Pickworth was the air gunner took off from RAF Binbrook to take part in a large raid on Berlin. Just after take-off, Pickworth’s Lancaster – fully laden with bombs for the mission ahead – banked sharply and dived uncontrollably into the ground, exploding on impact.
Pickworth, and all six of his fellow crewmates were killed: Australians Flight Lieutenant Barrington Knyvett, Flight Sergeant John Farthing, Flight Sergeant Henry Gill, Flight Sergeant Julian Dobinson, and Pilot Officer Edwin John Ross, and British flight engineer Sergeant Ronald Trett.

At home in Australia, Colin’s mother received the last letter from her son on 3 January. She later said that “it was quite a cheerful letter, but at the end of it he had written, ‘Well, folks, this is it.’ … a few days later I learned he had been killed over Germany.” Allowing for time differences, she calculated that she had read her son’s letter at almost the hour of his death.

Colin Pickworth was just 20 years old.

His name appears 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 Flying Officer Colin Reginald Pickworth, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section