The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (405351) Flight Sergeant Mervyn Louis Eastgate, No. 223 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 (405351) Flight Sergeant Mervyn Louis Eastgate, No. 223 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Second World War.

405351 Flight Sergeant Mervyn Louis Eastgate, No. 223 Squadron, Royal Air Force
KIA 3 April 1943
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 29 March 2016

Today we pay tribute to Flight Sergeant Mervyn Louis Eastgate, who was killed on active service with the Royal Air Force.

Born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 4 November 1919, Mervyn Eastgate was one of five children born to William and Alice Eastgate.

Along with his siblings – Stanley, William, Harry and Beryl – Mervyn attended the East Bundaberg Primary School and then Bundaberg High School. A keen sportsman during his youth, he enjoyed tennis, football, cricket, golf, and swimming.

He left school at 15 and worked as clerk for the Bank of New South Wales. On 3 March 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and began training as a wireless officer. He was quickly promoted to leading aircraftman and then sergeant.

In November 1941 Eastgate embarked in Sydney for overseas service. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, Eastgate was one of almost 16,000 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, gunners, and engineers who joined Royal Air Force squadrons throughout the course of the war.

Arriving in Rhodesia, Eastgate undertook further specialist training and was promoted to flight sergeant before joining No. 233 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in the Middle East in September 1942. Based in Egypt, the squadron flew the Martin Baltimore twin-engine bomber and provided support for the British Eighth Army. There, Eastgate joined a crew of three British airmen.

On 3 April 1943 No. 233 Squadron was conducting a raid over Tunisia when the Baltimore in which Eastgate was flying was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The pilot and co-pilot managed to parachute safely to the ground,
where they were captured as prisoners of war, but Eastgate and the air gunner were killed in action. The men were buried side by side in a joint grave in the Medjez-El-Bab British and Commonwealth War Cemetery
in Tunisia.

Mervyn Eastgate was 23 years old. His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 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 Flight Sergeant Mervyn Louis Eastgate, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and
in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section