The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (404532) Sergeant Harold Dawson Grimes, No. 75 (NZ) Squadron (RAF), 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 (404532) Sergeant Harold Dawson Grimes, No. 75 (NZ) Squadron (RAF), Second World War.

404532 Sergeant Harold Dawson Grimes, No. 75 (NZ) Squadron (RAF)
Flying battle 15 October 1941


Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant Harold Dawson Grimes.

Harold Grimes was born on 15 April 1915 in Balasore in eastern India, the son of Reverend Alfred Grimes and his wife Mary. The Reverend Grimes was at the time part of the Baptist Missionary Society, but he later retired to Brisbane, where he was heavily involved in religious education.

The Grimes family settled in the suburb of Taringa. Harold attended Brisbane Boys’ College and Gatton College, before going on to work as plants inspector with the Department of Agriculture. Stationed at Nambour, he was responsible for inspecting plants and stock for disease.

Harold Grimes also became secretary of the Nambour Golf Club, and was known as a keen exponent of the game.

On 5 July 1940, Grimes enrolled in the Royal Australian Air Force reserve at a recruiting centre in Brisbane – a first step towards enlisting with the RAAF itself. This he did around two months later, on 13 September 1940.

As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Grimes was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who, throughout the course of the war, would join Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

After initial training at Bradfield Park in Sydney, on 28 December Grimes embarked for overseas service. Arriving in Canada in January, he attended air observers school in Edmonton, earning his air observers badge in May. In July he left Canada, bound for England.

In August he joined 11 Operational Training Unit, based at RAF Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire, where he trained to become a member of a night bomber crew.

In late September 1941, Grimes began to put his training into practice when he was transferred to 75 Squadron of the Royal Air Force.

Known as the New Zealand Squadron, 75 Squadron had its origins in 1938, when the New Zealand government ordered 30 Vickers Wellington bombers. In early 1939, air and ground crews arrived in England to train on the new aircraft and the unit became known as the New Zealand Flight. When war was declared in September 1939, however, the New Zealand government put the bombers at the disposal of the Royal Air Force, requesting that a squadron be formed from the unit.

As training continued, New Zealanders serving in the Royal Air Force volunteered to serve with the unit. Early operations involved leaflet dropping over Germany, searching the North Sea, and attacking targets in Norway during the German invasion. With the fall of France, Bomber Command took the fight to the enemy. Coastal targets in France were attacked, and then industrial targets in Germany became a focus.

75 Squadron was engaged constantly against Germany from 1940 until VE day. The squadron flew more sorties than any other Allied heavy bomber squadron, suffered the second highest casualties of all Allied squadrons, and dropped the second largest weight of bombs of any Allied squadron.

Thirty-two Australian airmen lost their lives flying with 75 Squadron, one of whom was Harold Grimes. On 15 October 1941, Grimes was the air observer in a Wellington bomber that failed to return from an operation. Less than a week later, he and the other crewmembers were presumed dead.

Harold Grimes was 26 years old.

Today his remains lie in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, in the German town of Kleve, along with over 7,000 casualties from the Second World War.

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 Sergeant Harold Dawson Grimes, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section