The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX180545) Sapper Colin Leslie Hurley, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (NX180545) Sapper Colin Leslie Hurley, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

NX180545 Sapper Colin Leslie Hurley, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Accidentally killed 21 May 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 9 April 2015

Today we pay tribute to Sapper Colin Leslie Hurley, who was killed in the service of the Royal Australian Engineers in 1945.

Born on 10 December 1924 in Heron’s Creek, a small township on the north coast of New South Wales, Colin Hurley was the son of Mark Vincent Hurley and Elsie Della May Hurley.

Residing in Heron’s Creek, the young Colin Hurley attended the local school before working as a butter factory hand. On 19 February 1945 Hurley volunteered to enlist in the Second Australian Imperial Force. He was posted at the beginning of May to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, at the large Australian Army training base at Kapooka. However, in the afternoon of 21 May 1945, tragedy struck.

Crowded within a dug-out during a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges were two groups: one of 22 trainees and two instructors; the other a smaller squad of three men and one instructor. Inside the dug-out were 110 pounds of explosives stored for the day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown, the explosives ignited. In the explosion, 24 men were killed instantly, two died of injuries shortly afterwards, and two more were severely injured.

Sapper Colin Hurley was one of those killed in the accident. He was 20 years old.

A mass funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga. Thousands of people lined the route of the funeral parade and the 26 flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks. The cortège included more than 100 military vehicles carrying members of the Army and Air Force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

Hurley’s name – along with the other 25 killed in the accident – is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 Australians who died in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sapper Colin Leslie Hurley, and all of those Australians who gave their lives in the hope for a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section