The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Second Lieutenant John Alexander Raws, 23rd 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on Second Lieutenant John Alexander Raws, 23rd Battalion, First World War.

Second Lieutenant John Alexander Raws, 23rd Battalion
KIA 23 August 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 7 July 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Second Lieutenant John Alexander Raws.

John Raws was born in Manchester, England, the second son of the Reverend John Garrad Raws and his wife, Mary Jane. They migrated to South Australia when John, known to his family as Alec, was a young boy. Educated at Prince Alfred College, Alec was also a noted athlete, excelling in cricket and tennis. He became a journalist and worked for the Adelaide Register, the Perth Daily News, and finally the Melbourne Argus, where he was the chief parliamentary reporter from 1907 until his enlistment in the Australian Imperial Force on 21 July 1915.

Alec’s brother, Robert Goldthorpe Raws – known as “Goldie” – had already seen service on Gallipoli with the 23rd Battalion. Like his brother, Alec proved an able soldier and was soon commissioned second lieutenant, transferring to the 23rd Battalion in July 1916 in hopes of seeing Goldie.

Alec arrived in France in mid-1916 to join the 23rd Battalion in action at Pozières. However, he was too late to find his brother, who had gone missing three days beforehand during an attack near Mouquet Farm. Goldie was later declared to have been killed in action.

Alec Raws spent about two weeks on or near the front line at Pozières. In his first three days, he wrote:

I lost … my brother and my two best friends, and in all six out of seven of all my officer friends … Not one was buried, and some died in great agony. It was impossible to help the wounded … often we had to put them on the parapet to permit movement in the shallow, narrow crooked trenches.

In another letter he wrote:

The sad part is that one can see no end of this. If we live tonight, we have to go through tomorrow night and next week and next month. Poor wounded devils you meet on the stretcher are laughing with glee. One cannot blame them. They are getting out of this.

On 23 August 1916 Raws was heading to the front line when he was struck by the explosion of a nearby shell blast. No wound was found on his body, but he was killed by the concussion. One of his friends serving in the 23rd Battalion who had also been a member of the staff of the Argus said that he “preserved his quiet, philosophic disposition and his turn of quaint, sardonic humour to the last”. Alec Raws was 32 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Second Lieutenant John Alexander Raws and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.