The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1092) Private Mark Alexander Smith, 4th Battalion, 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 (1092) Private Mark Alexander Smith, 4th Battalion, First World War.

1092 Private Mark Alexander Smith, 4th Battalion
KIA 6 August 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 6 August 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Mark Alexander Smith.

Mark Smith was born in West Maitland, New South Wales, in 1893. Six months before he was born his mother left his father because, according to her, he “was a man with too many wives”. Mark’s mother had to work to support her sons, and Mark had a difficult childhood. At one point he was sent to the Sobraon, a training ship for delinquent boys. His mother tracked down his father to divorce him in 1906; otherwise, he and Mark had no contact.

Mark eventually ran away from the ship, and by the time war broke out in 1914 he was supporting himself by working as a labourer. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914. Such was his bitterness towards his father that he enlisted under the name Mark Alexander Drice in order to disown any connection between them. He was posted to the 4th Battalion and, after a brief period of training in Australia, was sent for overseas service.

The 4th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April as part of the second and third waves. By 1 pm the entire battalion was ashore and by the early evening they were in position in the firing line. Little is known of Private Drice’s experiences during the landing or the hectic days that followed.

Mark’s brother, Private Benjamin Smith, had enlisted a few weeks earlier than Mark and was on Gallipoli serving with the 3rd Battalion. He was shot in the forehead within weeks of the landing, and evacuated to Lemnos to recover, returning in June. It is not known how much contact the brothers had.

On the afternoon of 6 August 1915 the 4th Battalion took part in the attack at Lone Pine. It was one of the units leading the charge, and found the Turkish positions roofed over with pine logs. The men were forced to break through this roof to climb inside the trenches and engage the enemy. While ultimately successful, the battalion suffered severe casualties.

One of those killed was Private Mark Drice. Little is known of the manner of his death, but his brother, Private Benjamin Smith, was made aware. He scoured the battlefield for his brother, but never found him.
To remember his brother he took a cone from one of the logs covering the Turkish trenches. He sent the pinecone home to his mother, now remarried and living in Cardiff, near Newcastle.

Mark’s mother germinated several seeds from the pinecone that stood as a lone memorial to her lost son. One of the trees that grew from the pinecone now stands in the grounds here at the Australian War
Memorial. Mark Smith’s body was never found, and today he is commemorated on the memorial to the missing near the original Lone Pine on the Gallipoli peninsula. He died just days short of his 22nd birthday.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among 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 Mark Alexander Smith, and all those Australians who have given their lives in
the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section