The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (QX5729) Gunner John Victor Nelson, 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (QX5729) Gunner John Victor Nelson, 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment, Second World War.

QX5729 Gunner John Victor Nelson, 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment
Accidentally killed 9 September 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 29 August 2014

Today we remember Gunner John Victor Nelson, who was accidently killed while serving with the 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment in September 1940.

John Nelson was born on 7 June 1921 in Killarney, in the Eastern Southern Downs region of Queensland. He was the eldest of Charles and Ivy Nelson’s three children. He attended the Killarney State School and afterwards worked on the family farm. His father died in 1938, when John was 17, and sometime soon afterwards Nelson joined the Killarney troop of the Militia’s 11th Light Horse (Darling Downs) Regiment. The regiment’s motto was “Forward”.

Following the outbreak of war, Nelson volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force, enlisting in the army on 28 May 1940. He was posted to the 7th Division’s newly raised 2nd Anti-Tank Regiment that was then training at Redbank Plains.

After several months of training, in early September Nelson was granted pre-embarkation leave prior to the regiment being sent overseas to the Middle East. On 8 September Nelson was in a car travelling from Brisbane to Warwick. With him were his mother, his sister, and two other soldiers from the Warwick district. Driving along the Cunningham Gap road, about 40 kilometres from Warwick, the car left the road and crashed. All five passengers were badly hurt in the accident, with Nelson and another soldier, Private Harry Sanderson, suffering the worst injures. They were all taken to Warwick General Hospital. Part of the right side of Nelson’s chest was crushed and he suffered internal injuries. He died the next day, on 9 September 1940. He was 20 years old.

Private Sanderson survived his injuries from the crash but was discharged from the army in December. Later in the war, John Nelson’s younger brother, Ronald Nelson, also served in the army, remaining in Australia.

Soon after his death, John Nelson was buried in Killarney cemetery. He received a full military funeral, including a firing party, and he was buried alongside his father. Twenty-six years later, in 1956, Ronald Nelson was buried next to his brother.

Gunner John Victor Nelson is commemorated here, on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War. There is no photograph in the Memorial’s collection to display beside the Pool of Reflection.

We now remember his service and all of those Australians, as well as our Allies, who have given their lives in the service of our nation.