The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (32760) Gunner Albert Haydon, 1st Division Artillery, First 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (32760) Gunner Albert Haydon, 1st Division Artillery, First World War.

32760 Gunner Albert Haydon, 1st Division Artillery
KIA 20 October 1917
No photograph in collection: Family supplied

Story delivered 2 September 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Albert Haydon.

Albert Haydon was born in 1896 and was the oldest of five children of Albert and Isabella Haydon of Wallsend near Newcastle in New South Wales. Affectionately known as “Mick”, he grew up in the Sydney suburb of Balmain and attended school in the nearby suburb of Birchgrove. He later worked as a boat-builder and paraded part-time with the 29th Infantry Regiment. At the age of 17, Haydon became the principal bread-winner following his parent’s separation in 1913.

Haydon enlisted at Victoria Barracks as soon as he turned 21 in December 1916. After a period of training at the military camp at Sydney Showgrounds, he embarked for the training camps in England with a reinforcement group for the Medium Trench Mortar Batteries in February 1917. When he arrived, he spent the following months training on the Salisbury Plains near Wiltshire before sailing for France three months later.

Haydon went into camp at the AIF Base Depot at Roullers. He was posted to the 1st Divisional Artillery and mustered as a gunner for the X1A Medium Trench Mortar Battery. Equipped with four two-inch trench mortars – colloquially referred to by the troops as the “Toffee Apple” or “Plum Pudding” – Haydon’s Medium Trench Mortar battery fired a cast-iron bomb the size of a football to destroy barbed wire and heavily fortified enemy positions such as concrete pillboxes and German machine-gun positions. Light and portable, but providing accurate high-explosive fire, the guns formed part of the 1st Division’s arsenal of artillery on the Western Front.

Having arrived at his new unit in June 1917, Haydon participated in the Third Battle of Ypres. In an effort to break out of the Ypres Salient and drive the German army away from its submarine bases on the Belgian coastline, artillery units were instrumental in helping the infantry make a series of advances towards the village of Passchendaele. Beginning at Menin Road on 20 September 1917, the guns of the X1A Medium Trench Mortar Battery fired on the German positions and formed part of the “creeping barrage” that protected the Australian infantry as it advanced and captured ground occupied by German troops since 1914.

The advance continued throughout the following weeks, with the Australians successfully capturing Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. Although the infantry was largely successful in capturing ground, the devastation caused by the concentrated artillery bombardments destroyed the intricate drainage system that kept the low-lying area dry, and ultimately turned it into a quagmire. By early October, when the heavy rains set in, field gun batteries were finding it increasingly difficult to move through the thick, glutinous mud. As lighter alternatives to the field guns, the medium trench mortar batteries took on a more important role in providing the infantry with the fire support they so desperately needed.

On 20 October 1917 German artillery started shelling the gunners of X1A Battery as they were moving up the line from their headquarters along the Menin Road. There was little cover for the gun crews, with German shells falling along either side of them. As the crews approached the firing line, a shell landed among them, killing Haydon and one other man instantly.

Aged 21 at the time of his death, Haydon was buried at Bedford House Cemetery just outside Ypres. A small epitaph etched into his headstone tells of his family’s grief and sorrow: “So sadly missed by his sad mother”.

Haydon is listed on the Roll of Honour to my right, among more than 60,000 others from the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Gunner Albert Haydon, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section