The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (62438) Private Clarence Brushfield Shepley, Australian Graves Service, 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 (62438) Private Clarence Brushfield Shepley, Australian Graves Service, First World War.

62438 Private Clarence Brushfield Shepley, Australian Graves Service
DOD 26 July 1919
No photograph in collection

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Clarence Brushfield Shepley, who died in the months following the end of the First World War.

Clarence was born in 1899 in Norwood, South Australia, the second son of Frank and Annie Shepley. He attended local schools and a commercial college, and had been an active participant in the cadets and the Citizen Military Forces. Clarence was working as a draughtsman when he enlisted in the AIF in May 1918.

He was assigned to the 5th Service Reinforcements. After a period of training, he travelled from Adelaide to Melbourne, where he embarked on HMAT Barambah on 31 August 1918. Clarence suffered from influenza on the journey over, but recovered before he arrived in England. He was first assigned to the reinforcements of the 27th Battalion, but was transferred to the Headquarters of the AIF Depot. He spent several months in training units in the UK and then, in June 1919, he was attached to the Graves Registration Detachment.

A few weeks later Clarence was sent to France, to help locate, identify, and rebury Australian war dead from the battlefields. This was physically and emotionally taxing work. After only a few weeks in France, Clarence became ill. He was admitted to the 41st Stationary Hospital in Amiens with pneumonia, and succumbed to the disease on 26 July. He was 20 years old.

Clarence was buried at the St Pierre Cemetery in Amiens, where he rests today. This cemetery contains the graves of more than 670 Commonwealth servicemen from the First World War, who died in the many hospitals and casualty clearing stations that operated in Amiens during and immediately after the war. This cemetery also contains the graves of some 80 servicemen who died in the area during the Second World War.

The Shepley family continued to mourn Clarence for years after the war. In 1929, on the tenth anniversary of his death, they inserted an “in memoriam” statement in an Adelaide newspaper with the simple statement: “so dearly loved, so sadly missed”.

Clarence Shepley’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 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 Clarence Brushfield Shepley, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section