The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2910) Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw, 12th Battalion, AIF, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (2910) Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw, 12th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2910 Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw, 12th Battalion, AIF
KIA 23 April 1918
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 27 August 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw.

Ivan Whitelaw was the son of Robert and Annie Whitelaw of Briagolong, Victoria. He was one of six brothers to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force and fight in the First World War. He enlisted in July 1915 at the age of 21 and arrived in Egypt in March 1916, where he was posted to the 12th Battalion.

By the time Ivan Whitelaw arrived on the Western Front two of his brothers had already enlisted, served, and been repatriated to Australia. Lee Whitelaw was on Gallipoli only a few hours when he was shot in the face and, surviving the wounds, was repatriated to Australia. Felix Whitelaw was sent back to Australia after suffering sunstroke in Egypt, but in 1916 was in the process of reenlisting.

Ivan’s first experience of fighting on the Western Front was at Pozières, where he was gassed and sent to England to recover. His brother Angus was not so lucky, and was killed in action at Mouquet Farm in the same month.

At Bullecourt in 1917, just days after returning from hospital after being wounded in the hip, Ivan Whitelaw was commanding a post being heavily attacked by the enemy. He and the men in his command resisted so effectively with bomb and Lewis machine-gun fire that the attack was repulsed. For setting such a splendid example to his men during this action and for the battalion’s entire time in the line, Whitelaw was awarded a Military Medal and promoted to corporal. Another brother, Sergeant Robert Whitelaw, was killed in action at Bullecourt.

In 1918, in an attack on the Belgian village of Meteren, Ivan Whitelaw was killed by machine-gun fire. His body was not recovered.

Three of the six enlisted Whitelaw brothers died during the war. Of these, two died young men as a result of wounds. Such was their mother’s distress at the loss of her sons that a blind had to cover the Roll of Honour in the Briagolong community hall when she was there. Every year she “would sit crying in her horse and jinker watching the Anzac Day march from a distance, because she could not bear to go any closer”. A memorial to Annie Whitelaw was raised after her death to commemorate her role in the war effort – giving six of her sons to fight – and the work of all the women in the district throughout the war. The epitaph on the memorial, which was heartily supported throughout the district of Briagolong, bears the words of Conan Doyle: “Happy is the woman who can die with the thought that in the hour of her country’s greatest need she gave her utmost.”

Corporal Ivan Whitelaw’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with the names of his brothers, Sergeant Robert Angus Whitelaw and Private Angus McSween Whitelaw, and 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 Corporal Ivan Cecil Whitelaw, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.