The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Lieutenant Harold Letch, 1st Squadron Australian Flying Corps, First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial every 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 Craig Berelle the story for this day was on Lieutenant Harold Letch, 1st Squadron Australian Flying Corps, First World War.

Lieutenant Harold Letch, No. 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps
KIA 22 August 1918
Photograph: P01872.002

Story delivered 9 June 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Harold Alexander Letch of No.1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps.

Harold Letch was born in Donnybrook, Victoria, on the 3rd of May 1894, to Elizabeth and William Letch. He was working as a clerk for the electrical engineers branch of the Victorian Railways when war was declared in August 1914 and enlisted on the 19th of August.

Letch was promoted to corporal immediately because of his previous militia signals experience. He embarked on the transport ship Karroo on the 20th of October 1914. Letch was with the landing force at Gallipoli in April 1915 and was responsible for maintaining a wireless set from the first day until his unit was withdrawn for rest on Mudros in November. By this time, Letch had been promoted to sergeant.

Over the next two years Letch saw service in Egypt and Gaza, rising through the ranks to become a lieutenant. During the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917, Letch was recommended for a Military Cross for displaying 'great coolness and pluck in supervising and assisting in laying telephone lines under heavy shell and machine-gun fire'. He also received a letter of congratulation from General Harry Chauvel. In November, Letch was wounded in the leg and after 53 days in hospital took a week's leave in Luxor.

Soon after, Letch was seconded to No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps for observer training. Light horsemen were regularly recruited for the squadron as they were thought to be 'physically fitter and have quicker reflexes'. Like Letch, they often already had years of active service. Flying duties were extremely dangerous. The Australian Flying Corps, like its British counterparts, used no parachutes. They were heavy and bulky, and some feared that nervous fliers might jump, rather than fight, if parachutes were provided.

On the 22nd of August, Harold was patrolling over No. 1 Squadron's airbase at Ramleh, Palestine, with pilot Lieutenant Walker. Their Bristol Fighter, with one flown by Captain Brown, closed in on a German aircraft. Brown attacked the German aircraft from the front, while Letch and Walker attacked it from behind, but the observer in the rear of the German aircraft shot their Bristol fighter through the fuel tank, setting it alight.

Lieutenant Bowden Fletcher, watching from the ground that day, wrote in a newspaper account: 'Watching those two chaps, 16,000 feet aloft with their only means of reaching mother earth in safety burning beneath them, I had impressed on me the hideous hellishness of war.'

Letch was buried the next day at the Ramleh Military Cemetery, 12 miles south-east of Jaffa on the railway to Jerusalem.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is one of many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lieutenant Harold Alexander Letch, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.