The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3776) Private Clifford Clive Chapple, 50th Battalion, First World War

Accession Number PAFU2014/073.01
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 3 March 2014
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 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (3776) Private Clifford Clive Chapple, 50th Battalion, First World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

3776 Private Clifford Clive Chapple, 50th Battalion
KIA 16 August 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 3 March 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Clifford Clive Chapple.

Clifford Chapple was born in Kadina, South Australia. He received his education at the Wallaroo Mines public school and went on to work in the mines. He married Ethel Victoria Gurr in 1913. Two years later she died in childbirth. Four months after her death, Clifford left his young son, Clifford John, with Ethel's brother and went to war.

Chapple was just 22 years old when he left Australia with the 27th Battalion. He arrived in Egypt as the AIF was undergoing a period of reorganisation to accommodate the floods of new recruits arriving from Australia. As a part of this reorganisation he was transferred to the 50th Battalion and sent to France to fight on the Western Front.

The 50th Battalion first saw action around Mouquet Farm on the Somme in 1916. The battles here were fought under some of the heaviest shell-fire of the war, and the 50th Battalion sustained a large number of casualties. On 16 August Chapple volunteered to take one of these casualties to a dressing station. Lieutenant Victor Dridan had been hit by an artillery shell and had been severely wounded in the arm, and because of the continuing shell-fire he had had to remain in the trenches overnight. Chapple and at least two other men began to take him back on a stretcher. As they neared the dressing station they put the stretcher down to rest a moment. As they did so a shell landed near the party and killed Chapple and one other stretcher-bearer instantly. Dridan died later the same day.

After the war Chapple's brother-in-law applied for his medals to give to Clifford's young son. Clifford junior was only 7½ years old and his uncle thought it would be nice for him to have one when he grew up. Private Chapple has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War. There is no photograph in the collection to display 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 Clifford Clive Chapple, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3776) Private Clifford Clive Chapple, 50th Battalion, First World War (video)