The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3236) Private Angelo Roy Boitano, 52nd Battalion, 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 Craig Blanch, the story for this day was on (3236) Private Angelo Roy Boitano, 52nd Battalion, First World War.

3236 Private Angelo Roy Boitano, 52nd Battalion
KIA 3 September 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 24 April 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Angelo Roy Boitano.

Roy Boitano was born in Semaphore, near Port Adelaide in South Australia. His father died when he was a young man, and his mother remarried. Boitano attended Port Central School and was an active member of the naval cadets. In July 1915, six months after turning 18, he left his job as a labourer with Mallyons and joined the Australian Imperial Force.

Boitano was sent overseas with reinforcements to the 12th Battalion, although he managed to miss re-embarking on his ship after shore leave in Fremantle and had to follow on the next one in November 1915. He eventually arrived in Egypt where, as a part of the general reorganisation of the AIF, he was transferred to the 52nd Battalion.

In early August the battalion moved close to the front line to act as support for those units holding the line around Mouquet Farm in France. Groups of men were sent into the front line to act as carrying or working parties. Boitano was likely a member of one of these parties, as on 9 August he was close enough to the front line to be shot in the head. Although wounded enough to be sent behind the lines, Boitano returned to his battalion within weeks.

On 3 September 1916 the 52nd Battalion was in the line at Mouquet Farm. Boitano and his mate Lance Corporal Doyle ran across into a shell hole during the action. While Doyle carried on, Boitano stayed behind and was hit by an artillery shell that landed directly in the hole he was in. Doyle turned back, but could not see anything of Roy Boitano.

While his family in Australia waited to hear the fate of their dear son and brother, an investigation was conducted; it was eventually revealed that he had been killed in action.
In Australia his family chose a popular poem to commemorate Roy in the paper. It read:

I mourn for you, dear son
No eyes may see me weep;
But many a bitter tear I shed,
When all are fast asleep.
No matter how I weep,
No matter how I call;
There's nothing left to answer,
But your photo on the wall.

Roy Boitano was 19 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War. There is no photograph in the Memorial's 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 Angelo Roy Boitano, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.