The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3075) Lance Corporal Francis George Hyde Pownall, 10th 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (3075) Lance Corporal Francis George Hyde Pownall, 10th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3075 Lance Corporal Francis George Hyde Pownall, 10th Battalion, AIF
KIA 23 August 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 13 March 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Francis George Hyde Pownall, who died during the First World War.

Francis Pownall was born in London in 1896, the eldest child and only son of parents George and Blanche. He was musically oriented, and as one of the “Children of the Chapel Royal” who sang for the monarch Francis performed a solo in the death chamber of King Edward III at Buckingham Palace, and sang at the Coronation of King George V in Westminster Abbey. The Pownall family moved to Sydney when Francis was 16, but Francis was working as a clerk for a shipping agent in Port Adelaide when he enlisted in the AIF in June 1915.

Pownall was assigned to the 10th reinforcements to the 10th Battalion. In September he left Adelaide on board HMAT Ballarat, and after a period of training in Egypt joined his battalion in the Dardanelles. After the evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula in December 1915 Francis was transferred to France.

The 10th Battalion’s first major action on the Western Front was in late July at Pozières. One month later, as part of the 1st Infantry Division, the battalion was engaged in more fighting to the north-west at the German stronghold of Mouquet Farm. Heavy German artillery bombardments preceding and during the 1st Division’s advance incurred great losses. Even before launching their attack on the 21st, the 10th Battalion had sustained 120 casualties, and during the advance the numbers of killed and wounded were, according to the battalion’s war diary, “heavy and rapid”. When the 10th Battalion was relieved from the front lines on 22 August it had suffered a total of 335 casualties. Francis Pownall was one of them.

The exact particulars of Ponwall’s death are unknown, and he was listed as “killed in action” on 23 August. In reporting his death, an Adelaide newspaper stated that Francis “was held in high esteem by all those with whom he came into contact” and that he would be “sadly missed by a large circle of friends.” The 19 year old was reported to have been buried near Mouquet Farm, but his grave was never found. Today Pownall is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, along with more than 10,700 other Australians.

Francis Pownall’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on 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 Lance Corporal Francis George Hyde Pownall, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour circular

National Archives of Australia, Francis George Hyde Pownall, attestation papers.

10th Battalion War Diary, 22 August 1916: AWM4 23/27/10.

C.E.W. Bean, Official history of Australia in the war of 1914–1918, volume III, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1921–42, p. 802.

“The late Corporal Frank G.H. Pownall”, The Chronicle, 21 October 1916, p. 44.

Australian Graves Services to Base Records, 3 October 1922, NAA B2455 POWNALL FRANCIS GEORGE HYDE.