The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (410826) Flying Officer Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, No. 9 Squadron, 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (410826) Flying Officer Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

410826 Flying Officer Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 8 April 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 4 March 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Born in Melbourne on 6 June 1923, Bernard Selby Woolstencroft was the son of Bernard Woodall and Isobel Selby Woolstencroft. One of five siblings, he had an older brother, David, two younger sisters, Joan and Valmai, and one younger brother, Campbell.

The family resided in Newport, in Melbourne’s west. As a young boy, Bernard attended Neerim South State School, Noojee State School, and later Footscray Technical School. He was a keen sportsman, and played cricket with the Newport Baptists as well as League C Baseball.

During the Second World War four members of the Woolstencroft family served their nation. The father, Bernard, a veteran of the First World War, again enlisted and served as a paymaster in Melbourne with the rank of staff sergeant. His three eldest children all served: David in the Royal Australian Navy, Bernard in the Royal Australian Air Force, and Joan in the Women’s Axillary Australian Air Force.

In December 1942 the family finally heard that Bernard’s brother, David Woolstencroft, previously reported missing, had been killed when HMAS Yarra had sunk the previous March.

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

After further specialist training, Woolstencroft was posted to No. 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in early 1945. As part of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command, No. 9 Squadron was equipped with the four-engine Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber.

On 8 April the Lancasters of No. 9 Squadron were taking part in a raid on Lutzkendorf when the aircraft in which Woolstencroft was pilot was shot down and crashed outside the town of Kapellendorf near Weimar, Germany. Woolstencroft was killed, along with four British crewmates and fellow Australian Flight Sergeant Lindsay Arthur Bayley. Only one crewmember, the rear gunner, managed to bail out and spent the remaining weeks of the war as a prisoner of the Germans.

Bernard Woolstencroft was 22 years old.

He was initially reported as missing in action, and it took many months for his family to receive official confirmation of his death. In a letter to the family, the commander of No. 9 Squadron wrote that Bernard’s loss was a great blow. He added: “I wish I could tell you how much we in this country appreciate the way Australia is helping us in this war, and how bitterly we regret the loss of her sons.”

Woolstencroft is buried in Germany alongside his crewmates at the British and Commonwealth 1939–1945 Berlin War Cemetery.

The names of Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, David Woolstencroft, and Lindsay Bayley are listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among around 40,000 other 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 Bernard Selby Woolstencroft, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section