The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (422714) Flying Officer Edward Berkley Rowell, No. 467 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (422714) Flying Officer Edward Berkley Rowell, No. 467 Squadron RAAF, Second World War.

422714 Flying Officer Edward Berkley Rowell, No. 467 Squadron RAAF
Flying Battle 23 October 1944

Today we remember and pay tribute to Flying Officer Edward Berkley Rowell.

Edward Rowell was born in Sydney on 17 November 1921, the son of Edward and Constance Rowell.

He attended state high schools in Lismore, Newcastle and North Sydney, and went on to work for the Bank of New South Wales at Cootamundra and Barmedman.

Known by the nickname “Teddy”, Rowell joined the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve on 9 January 1942. A few months later, on 23 May, he attended a recruiting centre in Sydney and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force.

As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Rowell 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.

He began training as a pilot, first at Temora, where he attended elementary flight training school.

In December, Rowell embarked at Sydney, bound for Canada. In Ontario, he attended service flying training school. In late June 1943, he embarked for the United Kingdom, and in early April 1944 he joined an operational training unit based at RAF Silverstone, where he trained as a night bomber pilot.

On 6 September 1944, Rowell was posted to No. 467 Squadron, an Australian squadron under the command of the Royal Air Force, which consisted of a mixture of personnel from various Commonwealth nations.

On 23 October 1944, Rowell was the pilot of a Lancaster four-engine heavy bomber tasked to carry out a bombing attack on enemy targets at Vlissingen in the southwestern Netherlands.

In the face of bad weather and reinforced anti-aircraft defences, the RAAF squadrons involved lost three aircraft, had five more badly damaged, and thought that many of their bombs had overshot the target.

Rowell’s aircraft never returned. With no certainty about his fate, his father wrote to military officials and the Red Cross in search of news of his son, but to no avail.

Edward Rowell was later presumed to have died on 23 October 1944. He was 22 years old.

Today he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, which commemorates more than 20,000 airmen and women who were lost in the Second World War during operations from bases in the United Kingdom and North and Western Europe who have no known grave.

His name is listed 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 Flying Officer Edward Berkley Rowell, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section