The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1086) Private Devereaux George Cottingham, 7th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (1086) Private Devereaux George Cottingham, 7th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps, First World War.

1086 Private Devereaux George Cottingham, 7th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps
DOW 26 March 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 16 June 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Devereaux George Cottingham.

Devereaux Cottingham was the son of Edmund Cottingham and Isabell Bell of Western Australia, although Devereaux was born during their short time in Clarendon, South Australia. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Devereaux was in Kalgoorlie working as a stockman. He enlisted there in the Australian Imperial Forces in May 1915 at the age of 22.

Cottingham left Australia with the 28th Battalion and, after a period of training in Australia, was sent to Egypt. He normally would have expected to continue training there, but Devereaux suffered a number of health problems, among them ingrown toenails and malaria, that saw him undergoing treatment in hospital more often than not. He left Egypt for France in March 1916.

The following June the 28th Battalion was put into trenches around Bois Grenier to get valuable front-line experience in a quieter sector of the Western Front. “Quiet” was a relative term, and the men came under heavy artillery fire throughout this short period. Cottingham was wounded by this fire, and evacuated to Étaples with a serious wound in his leg.

Devereaux Cottingham transferred to the 7th Machine Gun Company once his wounds had healed. Machine-gun companies performed a highly technical role in battle in the First World War, providing covering fire for infantry and cooperating with their movements in the field. Cottingham could be a bit of a larrikin outside of the line – he was once charged with absenting himself from bathing parade, and another time for creating a disturbance after lights out – but in battle he was a disciplined soldier.

In March 1917 the company was cooperating in an attack on a German trench known as Malt Trench, near Warlencourt in France. Cottingham was recommended for a Military Medal in this action due to:

… great judgment and resource in the handling of his machine gun, following close in the wake of the assaulting troops. He pushed forward at the earliest opportunity in advance of the position gained where his cool manipulation of his weapon proved a large feature in the success of … operations.

Three weeks later Cottingham’s company was cooperating in an attack on Lagnicourt when he was hit in the chest and abdomen. Although he was brought out of the battlefield and taken to an operating centre, Devereaux Cottingham died of his wounds and was buried in France.

Shortly after hearing of his death, his mother was notified that Devereaux had been awarded the Military Medal for which he had been recommended so soon before his death. She wrote that if he had die, she “could not wish him to pass out in any better way than in fighting for his country and his King”.

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 Devereaux George Cottingham, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.