The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (815) Private William Maslen, 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery, 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (815) Private William Maslen, 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery, First World War.

815 Private William Maslen, 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery
KIA 18 October 1917
No photograph in collection

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Maslen, who was killed fighting in Belgium in the First World War.

William Henry Maslen was born in 1897 and was one of seven children of Walter and Josephine Maslen of Macksville, New South Wales. William attended Macksville State School and afterwards worked as a motor driver for his father, who operated boats on the Nambucca River. William travelled to Liverpool in Sydney to enlist with the Australian Imperial Force in January 1916 at the age of 19.

Having entered camp at Liverpool, William spent several months training before embarking in May 1916 with a reinforcement group for the 36th Battalion. He spent the following months training on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire, England, before embarking for France in September 1916. The 36th Battalion was at full strength and required no reinforcements, so Maslen was sent to France to reinforce the 54th Battalion, which was holding the line on the Somme near the village of Gueudecourt. There he endured the coldest winter Europe had seen for 40 years.

In February 1917 the Germans abandoned their positions on the Somme and withdrew to their formidable Hindenburg Line defences. William participated in the British advance that followed, but was evacuated to hospital suffering chafed legs and influenza. He re-joined the battalion in May 1917, when the 54th Battalion was committed to attacks against the Hindenburg Line in the Bullecourt sector.

As British operations shifted north into Belgium, William was selected to transfer to the 14th Brigade’s light trench mortar battery. Equipped with the 3-inch Stokes mortar, the light trench mortar batteries supported the infantry by dealing with German sniper loopholes, machine-gun nests, and belts of barbed-wire, and were facetiously referred to as the “shoot and scoot brigade”. William proved to be a plucky mortar man. During the 5th Division’s assault on Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917 he led a mortar team into battle to support the 56th Battalion’s attack on a number of German pillboxes. According to his battery commander, William “carried out his duties fearlessly and, though slightly wounded three times, he refused to leave his gun. His conduct was a source of inspiration for all concerned.” For his actions that day William Malsen was recommended for the Military Medal.

After Polygon Wood, William helped consolidate the ground gained from the Germans and fired in support of the Australian attack at Broodseinde. As the Australian troops continue their push towards the village of Passchendaele, they were subjected to fierce German artillery bombardments. On 18 October 1917, William Maslen was sleeping in a dug-out with five other members of his battery when a German shell landed on top of them.

All six men were killed; William was just 20 when he died. He was buried nearby on Westhoek Ridge near Zonnebeke, but the original marker above his grave was destroyed by subsequent fighting. He and is one of the 8,000 Australians with no known grave who are commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at the nearby city of Ypres.

William Maslen’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private William Maslen and all those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section