The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Captain Arthur Harold Appleby, 12th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on Captain Arthur Harold Appleby, 12th Battalion, First World War.

Captain Arthur Harold Appleby, 12th Battalion
KIA 6 May 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 6 May 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Arthur Harold Appleby, who died in France in the First World War.

Arthur Appleby was born in 1892, and was the elder of two sons to Arthur and Elizabeth Appleby of Hobart, Tasmania. Both parents died while the Appleby brothers were quite young, so they were raised by relatives. After school Arthur worked as an accountant at Blundstone and Sons in Hobart, and rose to become a prominent lacrosse player in the area. He also had substantial military experience, spending four-and-a-half years with the Derwent Regiment and the 91st Infantry Regiment as a signals officer.

Arthur followed his brother by enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in May 1915. Due to his previous military experience, he was commissioned and accepted into the AIF as a second lieutenant. After a period of training in Tasmania and on the outskirts of Melbourne, Arthur left Australia in June 1915 in charge of the 7th reinforcements to the 12th Battalion.

Arthur arrived on Gallipoli in September 1915 and remained there until the evacuation two months later. He spent several months afterwards training in Egypt, during which he was promoted to lieutenant, then captain. He was then transferred to England and seconded to the 3rd Training Battalion on the Salisbury Plains. Here he assisted in the training of Australian troops before they embarked for the fighting in France.

Throughout the following months the 12th Battalion was heavily committed to the fighting on the Somme, and was involved in costly attacks at Pozières and Mouquet Farm. Arthur "preferred service at the front" to a base job in England, and rejoined the battalion in October 1916, where he was appointed company commander of C Company of the 12th Battalion.

After winter the 12th Battalion took part in the brief advance that followed the German army's withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. Throughout April the 12th was involved in defending parts of the line from German attacks at Lagnicourt and Boursies, and Arthur led his men under fire throughout these battles.

On 6 May 1917 the 1st Division, including the 12th Battalion, attempted to break the Hindenburg Line at the village of Bullecourt. Having led his men over 1,000 yards of open ground exposed to German machine-guns and artillery, Arthur's battalion occupied a captured German trench and came under heavy enemy shell-fire. Arthur was hit by a large shell fragment and succumbed to his wounds before stretcher-bearers could get him to the nearest dressing station. He was buried in a sunken road on the Bullecourt battlefield, but the cross marking his grave was later destroyed by heavy fighting and his remains were never recovered.

To his men, Captain Arthur Appleby was "a fine man, a real good sort".

His name is recorded on the Australian National Monument at Villers-Bretonneux, and here on the Roll of Honour to 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 one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Arthur Harold Appleby, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.