The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (463) Private Frank Edward Lee, 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, 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 Robyn Siers, the story for this day was on (463) Private Frank Edward Lee, 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, First World War.

463 Private Frank Edward Lee, 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force
KIA 29 April 1915
Photograph provided by family

Story delivered 26 November 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Frank Edward Lee, killed in action on Gallipoli in April 1915.

Born in Ballarat in 1889, Frank Edward Lee was the eldest son of Christopher and Catherine Lee of Barkley Street, Ballarat East. A younger brother, Thomas Lee, was born in 1894. Growing up, the Lee boys attended the Golden Point Primary School. Frank was a keen musician and played piano. After primary school he worked as a tailor for Alec Miller & Sons in Ballarat, which was located on the corner of Humffray Street and Main Road. Tom was an apprentice painter.

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War Frank, then aged 25, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. He was posted to the 4th Battalion and served on Gallipoli. Tom Lee also joined the AIF in February 1915, and was posted to the 23rd Battalion.

On 25 April 1915 Frank Lee landed on Gallipoli with the 4th Battalion. Just days later, on 29 April, Frank was reported missing following the battalion’s action near Lone Pine.

On learning that Frank was missing, his mother wrote to the officer in charge, anxious that she “could not find him”. Later she held out hope that he may have become a prisoner of war. She also wrote to her second son, Tom, who arrived on Gallipoli in August, in the hope he may be able to find his brother.

There was nothing, however, that Tom could do, and after his arrival on Gallipoli he must have realised the odds of Frank being alive were very slim.

In September 1915 a court of inquiry determined that Frank had been killed in action on 29 April. Tom would later serve in France, and was seriously wounded, suffering a severe fracture to his arm during the battle at Mouquet Farm in August 1916. After some months of recuperation in Britain he was repatriated to Australia in 1917.

On his return home his relationship with his mother was severely tested. Tom had not found Frank on Gallipoli and had returned home to his family in Ballarat without his brother. It was something his mother would hold against him for the rest of his life.

Frank Lee has no known grave. His name is listed upon the Lone Pine Memorial at Anzac.

Lee’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with the names of over 60,000 Australians killed in the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of honour, courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Frank Edward Lee, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section