The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (429832) Flight Sergeant Walter Noel Pridmore, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force Second Wolrd 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (429832) Flight Sergeant Walter Noel Pridmore, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force Second Wolrd War.

429832 Flight Sergeant Walter Noel Pridmore, No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in flying battle 4 March 1945
Story delivered 18 October 2018

Today, we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Walter Noel Pridmore.

Walter Pridmore was born in Adelaide on 25 December 1923, the son of Henry Pridmore and Lily May Pridmore.

Known to his family by his middle name, “Noel”, Pridmore attended the local school before going to work as a clerk for the South Australian Gas Company.

On 12 September 1942, Pridmore enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a bomb aimer. After his initial training in Australia, he 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, Pridmore undertook specialist training before he was posted to No. 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in late February 1945. As part of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command, No. 12 Squadron was equipped with four-engined Avro Lancaster heavy bombers.

On the night of 3/4 March 1945 Pridmore was the bomb aimer in a Lancaster that was undertaking a training flight over England – when it was shot down by an enemy intruder near Stockwith, Lincolnshire.

Pridmore and all six of his crewmates were killed. They were fellow Australians Flight Sergeant Ronald Horstmann, Flight Sergeant George Davis, Flight Sergeant Alan Cryer, and Flight Sergeant Alexander Weston. With them were British crewmates Pilot Officer Arthur Thomas and Flight Sergeant Thomas McCaffrey.

Walter Pridmore was 21 years old.

The bodies of the crew were recovered from the crash, and Pridmore and his Australian crewmates were buried side by side in the RAF plot at Cambridge city cemetery.

Pridmore’s name is listed here 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 Flight Sergeant Walter Noel Pridmore, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section