The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (33617) Gunner Harrie Granville Crittenden, 1 Brigade Australian Field 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 Nicholas Schmidt, the story for this day was on (33617) Gunner Harrie Granville Crittenden, 1 Brigade Australian Field Artillery, First World War.

33617 Gunner Harrie Granville Crittenden, 1st Brigade AFA
KIA 3 November 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 18 November 2013

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Harrie Granville Crittenden.

Harrie Crittenden was the son of Mr J. Crittenden, the officer in charge of the money order department of the Wagga post office. Harrie was working as a bank clerk when he enlisted in the AIF in December 1916. It was noted that at the time he was "little more than a boy, being only 18 years of age".

Harrie went into the artillery; first the trench mortars and then the 1st Brigade of the Australian Field Artillery. Training for men going into the artillery was long and technically difficult, particularly in comparison to training for those entering the infantry. For the first time in warfare the big guns had to be used well behind the infantry, and so the artillery units were forced to fire at targets that they very often could not see. For this reason the art of long-range fire was becoming increasingly sophisticated and was heavily reliant on charts, trig tables, and complicated equipment.

After an extended period of training, Crittenden finally arrived in the front line in mid-October 1917. Less than three weeks later, he was killed in action. No specific mention of the manner of Harrie's death exists in his private papers. His artillery brigade had come under a serious German gas attack, which is likely to have been responsible for his death, as it was for a number of others from his brigade on the same day.

Back in Australia the newspaper wrote of:
... deep sympathy for & the sad bereavement which has fallen upon his family, but they will recognise that Harrie died nobly in defence of his homeland and its free institutions. His is another name added to Australia's glorious roll of honour.

That name is listed on the Roll of Honour on your left, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War.

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