The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (743) Lance Corporal William Menadue, 7th 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 Nicholas Schmidt, the story for this day was on (743) Lance Corporal William Menadue, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

743 Lance Corporal William Menadue, 7th Battalion, AIF
DOW 11 August 1915
Photograph supplied by family

Story delivered 25 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal William Menadue, who died during the First World War.

William Menadue was born in 1889 in the Victorian town of Eganstown, one of eight children to Samuel and Alice Menadue. William attended Eganstown State School and later Daylesford Secondary School. He worked as a miner, and was also a Methodist lay preacher in the Daylesford community. He enlisted in the AIF in August 1914, just a few weeks after the declaration of war.

William was assigned to the 7th Battalion. After a period of training at Broadmeadows camp he left Melbourne on HMAT Hororata in October. Arriving in Egypt in early December, he spent several months training in and around Cairo, Alexandria, and the Suez Canal. In early April 1915, the 7th Battalion was sent to Lemnos in preparation for the allied landings on Gallipoli. William, who had recently been promoted to the rank of lance corporal, was part of the second wave of troops to land during the morning of the 25th.

In those first few confusing days of battle, William was wounded by a bullet in his right shoulder, and was evacuated back to the No. 2 General Hospital in Cairo for treatment. By mid-June he had recovered enough to re-join his battalion. William wrote to his family upon his return to Gallipoli to let them know of his wound and recovery. He explained that he was “in good health at present … my shoulder is now all right … I felt it the first week after I returned to the battalion.”

On the 8th of August the 7th Battalion was dispatched to the trenches of Lone Pine to relieve units of the shattered 1st Brigade. William was one of several 7th Battalion soldiers caught up in an enemy bomb attack that night.

Official historian Charles Bean wrote that “the trenches were overcrowded with men, among whom the grenades exploded murderously”. The particulars of William’s wounds are not known, but it was recorded in his service record that his leg had been broken. He was evacuated from the peninsula on the hospital ship Devanha, but succumbed to his wounds on the 11th of August. William was 26 years old.

William was buried at sea, overseen by a military chaplain. After the war he was commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli, along with some 4,900 other Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in the area or at sea.

William’s family mourned their lost son and brother. Just after the first anniversary of his death, they inserted an “in memorium” notice in a Melbourne newspaper that simply stated:
’Till day break and shadows flee away.
Sadly missed.

William Menadue’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour to my right, along with the names of more than 60,000 other Australians who died in the First World War. His 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 Lance Corporal William Menadue, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour circular.

Family correspondence.

National Archives of Australia, William Menadue, service record.

7th Battalion War Diary for August 1914 to February 1915 (AWM4 23/24/1), April 1915 (AWM4 23/24/2) and August 1915 (AWM4 23/24/6).

C.E.W. Bean, Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, volume II, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1921–42, pp. 555–56.

Spectator and Methodist Chronicle, 18 August 1916.