The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1535) Private Horace Alfred Davis, 6th 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (1535) Private Horace Alfred Davis, 6th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1535 Private Horace Alfred Davis, 6th Battalion, AIF
KIA 7 May 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 16 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Horace Alfred Davis, who died during the First World War.

Horace Davis was born in Middlesex, England, in 1889, the eldest child of parents William and Marie. He attended school in Highbury, London, and worked as a printers’ warehouseman before immigrating to Australia at the age of 24. Horace was working as a miner in Victoria when he enlisted in the AIF in December 1914.

Horace was assigned to the 3rd reinforcements to the 6th Battalion. He left Melbourne on HMAT Runic in February 1915, and was taken on strength of his battalion on 30 April, five days after they had first landed on Gallipoli.

Several days later, the 6th was part of a larger Australian and New Zealand contingent transferred to Cape Helles at the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula. Here the men were to take part in an attack against the village of Krithia, a Turkish stronghold that had been one of the initial British objectives after the landings.

The 6th Battalion was ordered into action just after 5 pm on 8 May. Their objective was to form the front line of an attack against the enemy trenches, with the ultimate goal taking the hill to the rear of the town. This was a fierce and dangerous advance and the toll on the Australians was enormous. In just over one hour, 1,000 men of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Battalions had become casualties. Official historian Charles Bean later wrote that the attack was “made in the teeth of rifle and machine-gun fire such as Australians seldom again encountered during the war”.

Horace Davis was killed just before this attack. The 6th Battalion’s war diary states that prior to the advance “there were a few casualties from stray bullets”. The exact particulars of his death are unknown, but it is likely that one of these bullets killed Horace.

It was not until September 1917 that a court of inquiry held in France determined that he had been killed in action on 7 May.

Today Horace is commemorated at the Helles Memorial on Gallipoli, a 30-metre-high obelisk visible to ships passing through the Dardanelles.

This memorial lists the names of over 21,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died at Helles and on operations elsewhere on the peninsula and who have no known grave.

Horace Davis’ name is listed on the Roll of Honour to my right, along with the names of more than 60,000 other Australians who died fighting in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Horace Alfred Davis and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service
of our nation.

Dr Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
www.ancestry.com

Roll of Honour circular, Australian War Memorial.

6th Battalion War Diary for May 1915, entry for 8/5/1915: AWM4 23/23/1.

National Archives of Australia, H.A. Davis, attestation papers.

National Archives of Australia, H.A. Davis, “Report of death of a soldier”.

C.E.W. Bean, Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, volume II, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1921–42, p. 36.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-acemetery/cemetery/76100/HELLES%20MEMORIAL