The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (410698) Flying Officer Hugh John McCulloch, No. 207 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 Dennis Stockman, the story for this day was on (410698) Flying Officer Hugh John McCulloch, No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

410698 Flying Officer Hugh John McCulloch, No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 28 August 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 August 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flying Officer Hugh John McCulloch, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Ulverstone, Tasmania, on 11 May 1917, Hugh McCulloch was the son of Albert John and Olive Elizabeth McCulloch. He attended Ulverstone State School and Devonport High School, and gained a Bachelor of Arts at university. He worked for three years for the Education Department before taking up a teaching appointment as a resident master at Caulfield Grammar in Melbourne.

On 31 January 1942 McCulloch enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a navigator. On 17 October he married Marjorie Mary Brittingham of Elsternwick, Melbourne. That November he embarked for overseas service, first to Canada for further training, then to Britain. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers, who joined squadrons based in Britain throughout the course of the war.

In Britain McCulloch undertook further specialist training before being posted to No. 207 Squadron, Royal Air Force. As part of the RAF Bomber Command, the squadron was equipped with the four-engine Avro Lancaster heavy bomber.

McCulloch had only been with the squadron for a matter of weeks when he was taking part in an operation over Germany on the night of 27 August 1943. It was during this operation that the Lancaster in which McCulloch was navigator was shot down near Nuremberg, Germany, by
a night fighter. McCulloch, and all six of his crewmates were killed. They were fellow Australians Flying Officer John Richard Welch, Flight Sergeant Keeble Charles French, and Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Augustine Lynch, and British airmen Sergeant Leslie Thomas Reynolds, Sergeant James Seddon, and Sergeant Arthur Herbert Whetton.

Flying Officer McCulloch was 26 years old.

His body was recovered and he is buried alongside his crewmates at the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery at Durnbach, south of Munich.

McCulloch’s name is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 others 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 Hugh John McCulloch, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section