The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (77) Corporal Joseph Murray, 3rd Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps, 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 (77) Corporal Joseph Murray, 3rd Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps, First World War.

77 Corporal Joseph Murray, 3rd Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps
KIA 9 January 1917
No photograph in collection

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Joseph Henry Murray, who was killed while fighting in Palestine in the First World War.

Joseph Murray was born in 1879, one of ten children of Patrick and Catherine Murray of Petone near Wellington, New Zealand. He attended school in the area and immigrated to Australia in 1903.

After working as a miner in Broken Hill, Murray was living in Wauchope on the New South Wales mid-north coast at the outbreak of the First World War, and enlisted in October 1914. After a period of training in Sydney he embarked for Egypt as an establishing member of the 7th Light Horse Regiment. The men of the AIF spent months training at Mena Camp near Cairo before being drawn into the fighting on Gallipoli in April 1915.

The men of the light horse remained in Egypt during the landing on Gallipoli, but were soon brought in as dismounted reinforcements. Murray arrived in May 1915 and helped the 1st Division hold part of the line in the area near Lone Pine. After participating in bitter fighting throughout the August Offensive he was evacuated to Cairo with dysentery and general debility. He returned to Gallipoli in November, only to leave soon after as part of the evacuation.

Back in Egypt the AIF underwent a major restructure, doubling in size, and with new units being formed from a nucleus of experienced officers and NCOs. Having participated in the defence of Suez Canal against Turkish troops advancing across the Sinai desert, Murray was transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps, which was formed in January 1916 in order to deal with the revolt of pro-Turkish Senussi tribesmen in Egypt’s Western Desert.

British commanders in Egypt appreciated the fighting qualities of the cameleers, so in mid-1916 the Imperial Camel Corps was transferred to the Sinai Desert to participate in operations against the Ottoman Turks. Murray was mustered as a trooper in the 3rd Battalion, an all-Australian formation within a corps made up of Australian, New Zealand, and British elements. He was promoted to corporal in November and participated in the major actions that defined the Desert Mounted Corps’s campaign in the Western Desert, fighting at Romani in August and Maghdhaba in December.

On 9 January 1917 Murray was involved in the action at Rafa. During the day-long assault on the Turkish garrison at El Magruntein, the Turks defended a series of fortified redoubts and trenches, but were eventually encircled by the Australian Light Horse, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, mounted British Yeomanry, armoured cars, and the cameleers of the Imperial Camel Corps. Rafa was a victory for the Desert Mounted Corps, but it came at a price, with 71 men killed and 415 wounded. Among those killed in action was Joseph Murray. He was 38 years old.

Murray was buried near where he fell at El Magruntein, and was later reinterred at El Arish Military Cemetery. After the war, he was moved once more to the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery. A small epitaph written by his grieving parents reads:

Nobly he did his duty
Died for King and Country.

Joseph Murray 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.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section