The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX33471) Gunner Jack Stephen Shoveller, 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (NX33471) Gunner Jack Stephen Shoveller, 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, Second World War.

NX33471 Gunner Jack Stephen Shoveller, 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
DOD 18 April 1945
Photograph: P10538.001

Story delivered 7 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Jack Stephen Shoveller, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

The son of Thomas and Phoebe Shoveller, Jack was born in Sutherland, New South Wales, on 28 November 1917. Prior to volunteering for the Second Australian Imperial Force on 21 June 1940, Jack – known as Johnnie to his friends – worked as a brick-carter’s assistant.

Shoveller was given the rank of gunner and posted to the 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment of the Royal Australian Artillery, and in February 1941 embarked in Sydney for overseas service. Arriving in the Middle East that March, Shoveller joined his regiment as part of the Australian 9th Division at Tobruk in Libya. There the division formed part the British and Commonwealth garrison during the siege of Tobruk, which lasted from April until the end of 1941.

On 27 July 1942, at the first battle of El Alamein in Egypt, Shoveller was captured at Ruin Ridge and became a prisoner of war.

That September it was reported by the International Red Cross that Shoveller had died of wounds while a prisoner of war. His date of death was recorded as 28 July, and the report said he was buried in El Dabba Cemetery, Egypt. However, a year later Shoveller’s parents received a letter from the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau. It read:

I am a prisoner of war in Italy, having been captured at El Alamein on 27 July 1942; six months of the time I have been captured was spent in Libya from where I could not write home, and only to-day I learned from the Italian authorities of this camp that I was posted as having died in a German field hospital the day I was captured, this information having been sent home to my people. I was slightly wounded, but I am feeling quite well now.

The family soon received a postcard from Jack, saying:

I am all well and safe, so please do not worry about me. Had a spot of bad luck to get into this, but I am not alone for I have several mates with me so all is OK. Love to all at home.

Shoveller, it turned out, had given his greatcoat – with his paybook in the pocket – to his severely wounded sergeant, Bruce Alexander Templeman. When Templeman died of his wounds the following day the paybook led the Germans in the field hospital to mistake him for Shoveller.

Jack had spent some time recovering from wounds in Libya before being transported to Italy, where he was held in a number of camps, including No. 57 at Grupignano. After the Italian surrender in September 1943, German forces evacuated prisoner-of-war camps in northern Italy, transferring them to camps inside the German Reich. Shoveller was transported to Stalag VIIIA at Wolfsberg in Austria.

By October 1944 there were some 11,000 British Commonwealth prisoners of war at Wolfsberg. Of this number, Red Cross records indicated that 1,417 were Australian. Here Shoveller was drafted into a number of arbeitskommando, or work parties.

At the beginning of April 1945, suffering from a throat infection and unable to speak, Shoveller was sent to a prisoner-of-war hospital at Graz. By the 18th, just weeks before the end of the war, he died in hospital in mysterious circumstances. Officially, it was stated that Shoveller died of Typhus, though some of his fellow prisoners reported that he died of poisoning after swallowing a ring.

It was not until the end of August that his death was officially confirmed to his family. He was buried in the Klagenfurt War Cemetery in Austria.

Shoveller’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with the names of some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War. His photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Jack Stephen Shoveller, and all of those Australians who gave their lives for their nation.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Military History Section