The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3636) Lance Corporal John Alexander Macmillan, 42nd 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 , the story for this day was on (3636) Lance Corporal John Alexander Macmillan, 42nd Battalion, First World War.

3636 Lance Corporal John Alexander Macmillan, 42nd Battalion
KIA 12 October 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 5 July 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal John Alexander Macmillan.

Jack Macmillan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland. After completing school he studied to be a teacher, but as soon as he turned 18 he enlisted in the AIF in 1916. He left Australia the next year and on arrival in France transferred to the 42nd Battalion.

One of the men in the battalion with Macmillan had been his teacher at the Rockhampton Central Boys’ State School before the war, and wrote that he was doing particularly well as a soldier. Macmillan was known for his sensible nature and for having “a grip of things far beyond his years as far as his military accomplishments [were] concerned”.

Just before going into action with the 42nd Battalion in October 1917 he was promoted to lance corporal.

Macmillan survived the 42nd Battalion’s successful operation near Zonnebeke in Belgium. However, the next time the battalion went into action, just a week later, he was not so lucky. While holding part of a trench with his mate Private Clarence Tillage he came under fire. A piece of artillery shell caught Macmillan in the head, and he fell to the floor of the trench. Tillage sought assistance but, although they managed to get Macmillan bandaged up and ready for stretcher-bearers, he died within half an hour of being hit.

Jack Macmillan had been a popular young man in his unit and many thought very highly of him. He was buried on the battlefield and a brief service was read for him by an officer. However, in the confusion and danger of the fighting his final resting place was lost, and despite an intensive search for unregistered graves Macmillan is now one of many of the First World War dead with no known grave.

His good friend Lance Corporal Briggs wrote to his parents, saying:

one thing is certain – had he lived to old age and made the greatest possible success of any profession and attained the highest honour that are to be bestowed on any man, his death could not have been nobler or his sacrifice more highly given. He died in the most just of causes and gave his life that posterity might have the freedom so dearly being bought today.

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 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 Lance Corporal John Alexander Macmillan, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.