The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (Q7517) Corporal Jeremiah Francis Ryan, 11th Motor 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (Q7517) Corporal Jeremiah Francis Ryan, 11th Motor Regiment, Second World War.

Q7517 Corporal Jeremiah Francis Ryan, 11th Motor Regiment
Accidentally killed 18 June 1942
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 24 October 2014

Today we remember Corporal Jeremiah Francis Ryan who died while serving with the 11th Motor Regiment in 1942.

Descended from Irish Catholic origins, Jeremiah Joseph Ryan was born on 3 November 1918 in Warwick, in the Southern Downs region of Queensland. Known as “Frank”, he was the fourth son of Jeremiah and Catherine Ryan’s six children. He attended the Bony Mountain State School and then the Christian Brothers College in Warwick.

After leaving school Frank worked on the family farm. He later joined the Militia’s 11th (Darling Downs) Light Horse Regiment along with his older brother Stephen. By the time the Second World War began in September 1939, their father, Jeremiah Ryan senior, had passed away.

In December 1941 the 11th Light Horse Regiment was renamed the 11th Motor Regiment and was based in Gratton in the Lockyer Valley, south-eastern Queensland. Not two weeks after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the start of the war in the Pacific, Frank Ryan was called up for full-time duty with the rank of trooper in the regiment’s A Squadron. Frank’s younger brother Kevin was called up for service with the Militia a few days later.

Little is known of the details of Frank Ryan’s experiences in the army, but he must have been a capable soldier, demonstrating an ability for leadership; in May 1942 he was promoted to acting corporal.

The following month the regiment was stationed in Gympie in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland. On 18 June a group of men from A Squadron, including Ryan, were stood down for the afternoon and went for a swim in the nearby Mary River at Biddles Crossing. However, Ryan must have gotten out of his depth and vanished.

His disappearance was not initially noticed, but when it was realised that Ryan was missing the search continued throughout the afternoon and into the evening until it became dark. It is believed that Ryan had accidently drowned at about 2 pm that afternoon. His body was not recovered until the next morning.

He was 23 years old.

He was the only one of the Ryan brothers who died during the war. His older brother Stephen volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force and became a sergeant with the 2/10th Battalion in New Guinea in 1943 and Borneo in 1945. Kevin Ryan remained in the army for about a year, but did not serve overseas.

Frank Ryan’s body was taken back to Warwick, where a large crowd met it at the railway station. The mourners then followed his coffin to St Mary’s Church and then Warwick Cemetery, where he remains to this day.

Corporal Ryan is also commemorated here, on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Corporal Jeremiah Francis Ryan, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.