The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (30185) Sergeant Daniel Brooke Griffiths, No. 19 Operational Training Unit, Royal 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 (30185) Sergeant Daniel Brooke Griffiths, No. 19 Operational Training Unit, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

30185 Sergeant Daniel Brooke Griffiths, No. 19 Operational Training Unit, Royal Air Force
Accidentally killed 28 April 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 11 October 2015

Today we pay tribute to Sergeant Daniel Brooke Griffiths, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in Hobart on 2 December 1941, Daniel Brooke Griffiths was the son of Lionel George Griffiths and Rosa Kathleen Griffiths. As a young man Daniel attended Scotch College in Launceston, and later the Hutchins School in Hobart.

Before his enlistment in the Royal Australian Air Force on the 6th of May 1940, Griffiths was employed as an electrical salesman at the British General Electric Company in Hobart. After enlisting, he began training as an airman, and embarked for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Griffiths was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the war.

After arriving in Britain, Griffiths began further specialist training with the No. 19 Operational Training unit. On 28 April 1943 Griffiths was involved in a training accident when the twin-engine Armstrong Whitworth A.W. 38 Whitley medium bomber in which Griffiths’ crew was flying crashed into the Moray Firth, off the north coast of Scotland. Griffiths and all five of his British and Canadian crewmates were killed.

Griffiths’ body was recovered, and was buried at the Kinloss Abbey Burial Ground at Kinloss in the county of Moray, Scotland. He was 21 years old.

Griffiths’ name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, with the names of his Australian crewmates McCulloch, Lynch and Welch. They are 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 Sergeant Daniel Brooke Griffiths, and all those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who gave their lives in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section