The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4729) Private Francis Gordon Angrave, 50th Battalion (Infantry), First World War

Accession Number PAFU2013/017.01
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 28 August 2013
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (4729) Private Francis Gordon Angrave, 50th Battalion (Infantry), First World War.

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Speech transcript

4729 Private Francis Gordon Angrave, 50th Battalion
KIA 23 February 1917
Photograph: P09291.008, also from Adelaide Chronicle, 24 March 1917, p.44

Story delivered 28 August 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Private Francis Gordon Angrave.

Frank Angrave was born in Laura in South Australia and was working at May Brothers iron shop and foundry in Gawler as a machinist at the outbreak of war. He enlisted in November 1915, aged just 18. Frank revelled in his new freedom as a soldier-in-training. He wrote to his mother to tell her about his punishments for spending four days in Petersburg (later Peterborough) without permission, and for staying in bed rather than getting up for physical drill. He rather gleefully asked her, "Don't you reckon I am getting a bad egg?"

He was interested in everything he saw on his journey to the war, remarking that he "had a good time at Fremantle but a better one at Colombo". In fact, he had such a good time in Colombo with his mates that three of them had tattoos on their arms to remember it by.

Angrave was with the 50th Battalion throughout the operations around the French village of Pozières and Mouquet Farm. He came through some of the heaviest shellfire on the Western Front without a blemish on his person or his service record, remaining with the battalion into the winter of 1916-17. This was a particularly cold winter for that part of France, and Angrave did not enjoy the snow. He wrote to his mother about:
... a fall of snow one night when we were in the trenches. Talk about rotten. I've never felt so uncomfortable in all my life ... As soon as it thawed it was worse - nothing but mud up over my knees ... I got stuck in the mud and had to get a couple of chaps to heave me out. Talk about a mess, you could hardly tell which was mud and which was Frank by the time I had got out.

In many respects that winter "was a case of live and let live", with both sides at the front trying to survive the extreme cold. However, it was still a dangerous place, with active snipers and ongoing artillery fire.

Angrave was on the Lewis gun team of B Company. On 23 February, the afternoon before they were to be relieved, he was with the team in a trench in front of the French village of Flers. A German shell came over and landed in the middle of the gun position, killing Private Frank Angrave and three others instantly. Angrave and his comrades, Lance Corporal Pitt and Privates Halvorsen and Larwood, were buried behind the lines later that night in a single grave. At home in Gawler, as a token of respect to the memory of popular, "jolly sort of fellow", all the flags were half-masted. He was mourned by an extended family and a large circle of friends Gawler, Peterborough and Yacka.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War, and his photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Francis Gordon Angrave, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

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