The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX6461) Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company, Australian Army Service Corps, Second 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (NX6461) Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company, Australian Army Service Corps, Second World War.

NX6461 Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company, Australian Army Service Corps
KIA 8 May 1945
Photograph: P02551.001

Story delivered 8 May 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, who was killed on VE Day 1945 - the final day of the Second World War in Europe.

The son of Montague and Gertrude Saywell, Lawrence Phillip Saywell was born in Sydney on the 1st of December 1918.

A man of great intelligence and good humour, Saywell worked as a wool broker and jackeroo before he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. Being under the age of 21, he required his mother to sign his attestation papers. Saywell was one of the original members of the 6th Division, and was assigned to the Australian Army Service Corps, attached to the 17th Brigade.

In January 1940 Saywell embarked for overseas service. His unit then spent most of the next year undertaking further training in Palestine before being sent to Libya. At the end of March 1941 Saywell's unit was sent to Greece, where in the face of the German advance it was withdrawn to Crete. Following the German capture of Crete, Saywell became one of around 5,700 Australian soldiers taken prisoner following the campaigns in Greece and Crete.

Saywell was held in stalags in Moosburg, Germany, and Lamsdorf, in current day Poland. During this time he worked in a variety of labour camps, learning to speak German and possibly some Russian. Restless in captivity, Saywell and his New Zealand friend Sydney "Mac" Kerkham made at least two unsuccessful escape attempts, but in January 1945 they succeeded. As the Germans ordered the evacuation of prison camps in the face of the Soviet advance, Saywell and Kerkham managed in the confusion to escape the camp at Pardubice, in what is now the Czech Republic.

They found refuge in the town of Zderaz, where they were kept hidden by local families. When in the first week of May a national uprising against the Germans occurred in Czechoslovakia, the two came out of hiding and made their way to the town of Miretin, in what is now the Czech Republic.

It was there on 8 May 1945, the official date of the end of the war in Europe, that Saywell was killed. That day an argument broke out between group of German troops and some Soviet-Czech partisans who had taken a group of around 30 German officers hostage in the local school. Saywell intervened, offering his services as interpreter, and managed to succeed in getting the officers released. For reasons that remain unclear, shortly after this incident Saywell was killed, murdered by a German soldier who shot him in the head. He was 26 years old.

His body was buried in the local cemetery. Later that year the local community of Miretin erected a memorial to Saywell's memory on the site of his death. He was also posthumously awarded the Czechoslovakian Military Cross. His remains were later removed to the British Commonwealth War Cemetery at Prague, but his death is still commemorated at Miretin every year by a ceremony and procession.

Saywell's name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with the names of some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War, and his photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of honour, courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Lawrence Phillip Saywall, and all of those Australians - as well as our Allies and brothers in arms - who gave their lives in service of their nation.