The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2643) Private Granville Clarke, 55th 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (2643) Private Granville Clarke, 55th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2643 Private Granville Clarke, 55th Battalion, AIF
KIA 26 September 1917
No photograph in collection (supplied by family)

Story delivered 10 October 2015

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

Granville George Thomas Clarke was born in February 1897 to George and Selina Clarke of Kenilsworth, near Nimmitabel in southern New South Wales. After attending state school in the Nimmitabel area, Clarke was working locally as a grazier and farm labourer at the outbreak of the First World War.

The war came to Nimmitabel in January 1916 when the Men from Snowy River Recruitment March passed through the Monaro area. Although Clarke was too young to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force at this time, with his father’s consent he travelled to the nearest recruiting depot at Goulburn and enlisted two months after his 18th birthday.

After a short period of training at Goulburn, Clarke travelled to Sydney, where he embarked for England with a reinforcement group of the 55th Battalion in October 1916. He spent several more months training on the Salisbury Plains before proceeding to France in December, whereupon he underwent more training at the infamous “Bull Ring” at Étaples. He was finally taken on strength with the battalion a Trones Wood, near Montaubaun on the Somme.

After the Germans abandoned positions held tenaciously throughout the 1916 Somme campaign, the 55th Battalion participated in the subsequent allied advance and followed up on their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line.

Clarke’s first major action on the Western Front took place at Doigines on 2 April 1917, during which he was wounded in the knee and evacuated to England for recovery. As such, he missed out on the heavy fighting at Bullecourt throughout April and May. When he returned to France the focus of British operations had shifted north to Belgium, and here the Australians would play a leading role in the series of actions that together became known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

On 26 September 1917 the 55th Battalion participated in an operation to capture the German stronghold at Polygon Wood. Well supported by artillery and employing the latest in infantry tactics, the Australian 5th Division succeeded in taking its objectives within two hours. Despite this, the action cost the division some 3,700 casualties. Among the missing was Private Granville Clarke, who was listed as killed in action. His burial place was lost, and as such he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, alongside 6,100 Australians killed in Belgium who have no known graves.

Granville Clarke is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 other Australians who died during the First World War. The photograph displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection shows Clarke with his sister Mina.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section