The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (5796) Private William Walsh, 9th Battalion, AIF, 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (5796) Private William Walsh, 9th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

5796 Private William Walsh, 9th Battalion, AIF
DOD 15 December 1916
No photograph in collection
Story delivered 7 January 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Michael Walsh, who died while fighting in France during the First World War.

William Walsh was born in 1894 to Michael and Mary Walsh of Ramornie, near Grafton in northern New South Wales. His parents died when he was a baby, so he and his siblings spent their formative years living with his Aunt Mary in South Grafton. He attended a public school and then boarded at Holy Cross College in the Sydney suburb of Ryde before returning to Grafton to work as a clerk at the Australasia Bank.

Walsh enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Roma, Queensland, in July 1915, and after a period of training at Enoggera he embarked for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 9th Battalion. When he arrived the Gallipoli campaign had ended, and the AIF effectively doubled in size as it prepared to take part in the fighting on the Western Front.

Walsh did not arrive on the Western Front until August 1916. After landing in Marseilles he was immediately hospitalised with tuberculosis at the nearby British Stationary Hospital. He remained there for three months before succumbing to the disease on 15 December. He was just 22 years old.

William Walsh was originally buried at St Pierre Cemetery, but today rests in the Mazargues War Cemetery at Marseilles. A small epitaph on his headstone reads: “May he watch with Christ, and rest in peace.”

Several months after William Walsh’s death his younger brother Vincent died of shrapnel wounds while serving with the 41st Battalion near Messines.

William Walsh is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section