The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (909) Private Leonard Kerry Smiles, 2nd 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (909) Private Leonard Kerry Smiles, 2nd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

909 Private Leonard Kerry Smiles, 2nd Battalion, AIF
DOW 2 May 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 2 May 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Leonard Kerry Smiles.

Len Smiles was born in 1894 in Albury, New South Wales. He was the youngest son of Thomas and Bridget Smiles. He attended St. Patrick’s Boys School in Albury, and then took a position in a local department store. After two years he moved to Sydney, where he worked in the grocery department of the Civil Service Stores in Pitt Street.

As a young man Smiles was a cadet, and went on to become an active member of the Citizens’ Militia, serving with the 18th Infantry Regiment. Smiles was working at a grocery in Bondi when war was declared; he immediately enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, with his new employers promising to keep his position open for him.

Len Smiles went into camp in Sydney for training. He was a slight man, with a mop of curly black hair, and looked much younger than his 20 years. The captain of his company tried to stop him from joining the first contingent because he “looked far too young and fragile for such arduous work”. Smiles would not back down, and was posted to the 2nd Battalion for service overseas.

After a period of training in Egypt the 2nd Battalion was sent to the island of Lemnos on the way to Gallipoli. There a doctor again tried to deter Private Smiles from going to war and wanted him posted on less strenuous duties. Again, Smiles refused. He regularly wrote cheerful letters home, and expressed confidence that he would “get through all right”.

He was with the 2nd Battalion as they landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and “took his part in the terrible climb up the Gallipoli hills in the face of a withering fire”.

At some point during the confusion of the first days on Gallipoli Private Smiles was shot. His friend Private Reilly later said that Smiles had “begged to be left alone, being entirely resigned to his inevitable fate”. The stretcher-bearers took him to the beach, however, and he was taken to hospital in Alexandria. He died a few days later.

The situation at Gallipoli was so confused that the date of Len’s death was not confirmed for the Smiles family back home for many months. In fact, the recorded date of 2 May 1915 is an estimate. Len’s father finally received confirmation of his son’s death by telegram. He read it, put it on the table, and remarked: “He was a brave boy; all the Australians must have been brave to fight as they did.” Len was the first of Thomas Smiles’ sons to die in war – Ernest and Frank Smiles both died in the fighting on the Somme in 1916.

The name of Private Leonard Smiles is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 Australians who died during 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 Leonard Kerry Smiles, his brothers Private Frank Stanley Smiles and Private Ernest Pearce Smiles, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section