The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6835) Private George Sydney Moppett, 13th 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (6835) Private George Sydney Moppett, 13th Battalion, First World War.

6835 Private George Sydney Moppett, 13th Battalion, AIF
KIA 11 April 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 18 October 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private George Moppett, who died while serving with the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War.

George Moppett was born in 1880, the eldest of six children of Richard and Mary Moppett of Brighton in the United Kingdom. The Moppett family migrated to Australia when George was 14, settling at Picton in New South Wales.

Moppett attended Croydon Public School and the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, after which he trained as a teacher and taught third form at a number of remote part-time schools in the Armidale region. In 1906 he married Amy Parsons, and they had three children – Elizabeth, Bert, and Richard – before moving to Copmanhurst on the Clarence River. There the Moppetts became respected members of the local community. George Moppett was well-known for teaching at the local school, but he was also the captain of the local rifle club and the secretary and treasurer of the Clarence River Patriotic Funds Sub-Branch.

In 1915 Moppett, aged 35, was too old to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. That October Amy died unexpectedly, and the children went to live with George’s family at Thirlmere near Picton while he continued teaching in the Copmanhurst area. It was around this time that the age limit for entry into the AIF was extended to include men up to the age of 45. Moppett enlisted in Grafton in June 1916, and boarded a steamer for Sydney with another teacher from the area.

After several months spent training in camp at the Sydney Showground, Moppett left Australia with a reinforcement group for the 13th Battalion, bound for the training camps in England. He spent several months
training on the Salisbury Plains, and embarked for the Western Front in February 1917. When Moppett joined his battalion near Gueudecourt on the Somme the 13th Battalion was still recovering from heavy losses
suffered in the bitter fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm.

Around this time the German troops abandoned their Somme defences and withdrew to a formidable series of fortifications known as the Hindenburg Line. The 13th Battalion took part in the advance that followed, skirmishing with German rear-guards. The Australians reestablished contact with German troops near the village of Bullecourt, where on 11 April 1917 the 4th Division launched an attack on the Hindenburg Line.

The 13th battalion suffered heavy casualties in this costly and unsuccessful action. Among them was George Moppett, who was listed as missing in action in the days after the battle. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen him at a dressing station in a sunken road on the Bullecourt battlefield, killed by a German shell burst, although this report could not be verified. Several months passed without any further news, and so in
September 1917 Moppett was officially listed as having been killed in action. His body was never recovered, and as such he is among 10,738 Australians who are commemorated on the Australian National
Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.

His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60, 000 others from the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section