The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6174) Private George Ross Seabrook, 17th Battalion, 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (6174) Private George Ross Seabrook, 17th Battalion, First World War.

6174 Private George Ross Seabrook, 17th Battalion
KIA 20 September 1917
Photograph: H05568 (Left to right: Theo, Keith, George)

Story delivered 22 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private George Ross Seabrook.

George was born to Fanny and William Seabrook of Petersham, New South Wales. He was the eldest of three sons to enlist for service in the First World War. George had completed an apprenticeship with a manufacturer of Newtown as a young man, but was working as a master painter on the outbreak of war. He was a widower – he had married Winifred Kean in 1913 but she and her sister died in January 1916. That August George enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, aged 24.

After a period of training he left Australia on the troop transport Ascanius with the 17th reinforcements to the 17th Battalion. He was joined in this contingent by his two brothers, Theo and Keith. After a further period of training in England the three went to France, and eventually Belgium, to fight on the Western Front.

On 20 September 1917 the 17th Battalion attacked the German position near the town of Westhoek. The attack was recorded as “entirely successful”, and the battalion advanced almost a mile. However, this single battle would prove devastating for the Seabrook family. Keith Seabrook, by now commissioned to the rank of lieutenant, was hit by a phosphorous bomb that killed or wounded almost a full section of the platoon he was leading. He died the following day.

While Keith was being taken from the battlefield on a stretcher, George and Theo were killed in action. The brothers were killed instantly by the same artillery shell in the early hours of the morning of 20 September. It was the first time any of the Seabrook brothers had been in the firing line. Keith was buried in a cemetery next to the casualty clearing station in which he died. George and Theo have no known graves and are commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres.

The triple blow was devastating to the Seabrooks back in Australia, who lost their three eldest sons in just a few hours.

The names of George Seabrook and his brothers are listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War. Their photograph is displayed today 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 Private George Ross Seabrook and his brothers, Lieutenant William Keith Seabrook and Private Theo Leslie Seabrook, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
www.ancestry.com

17th Battalion War Diary, 20 September 1917, Australian War Memorial.

Red Cross Wounded & Missing file for William Keith Seabrook, report by Lance Corporal A. Costello.

Red Cross Wounded and Missing file for George Ross Seabrook, reports by L. McKinnirey and L. Rigley.

“Three brothers perish”, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1917, p. 6.

Family notices, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 1916, p. 7.

“Keith, Theo and George Seabrook killed in World War”, Daily Telegraph, 11 November 2008.