The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser, 1st 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser, 1st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser, 1st Battalion, AIF
KIA 5 November 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 5 November 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser.

Known as “Miller”, Lanser was born in 1890, the eldest son of Edward and Bertha Lanser of Paddington, New South Wales. He attended the Waverly Public and Fort Street Schools, and went on to become a motor mechanic. He was also member of the local senior cadets, and took an interest in swimming and athletics.

Lanser enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force within weeks of the outbreak of war in 1914. He was posted to the 1st Battalion, and after a brief period of training in Australia left with the first contingent, arriving in Egypt that December.

While in Egypt Lanser took the opportunity to make a recording of his voice at a small record manufacturing business. He sent the pressed shellac disc and metal stamper home to his family. On it he said:

I hope you all had a real jolly good Christmas – we did, I know. And of course it’s … not really the first time I’ve been away for Christmas, but I was anxious to get back for this one. But here I am, here now – I am really enjoying myself and that’s the main thing …

On 25 April 1915 the 1st Battalion landed at Anzac Cove as part of the second and third waves of the Gallipoli landings. During the confusion of these early days Lanser was wounded with a gunshot to the left knee. He was evacuated from the peninsula in early May and spent some time recovering in a hospital in Egypt. He re-joined his battalion on Gallipoli at the end of July 1915.

Lanser’s battalion participated in the attack on Lone Pine on 6 August. The men ran across no man’s land to attack the Turkish trenches, which were found covered with pine logs. They were forced to pull up the logs and jump into the trenches, and over the next few days they engaged in fierce hand-to-hand fighting with the Turks. At some point during this battle Lanser received gunshot wounds to the chest and arm. He was once more evacuated, and was not fit to return to his battalion until early in 1916.

In March 1916 Lanser travelled to France with his battalion to fight on the Western Front. He attended a school of instruction in Belgium and shortly afterwards received his commission as a second lieutenant. He
went on to fight on the Somme in July, when the 1st Division captured the French village of Pozières. He spent much of the rest of the year at training courses in Stokes trench mortars and Lewis machine-guns.

On 5 November 1916 the 1st Battalion participated in an operation near the French village of Flers. Second Lieutenant Lanser led his men into no man’s land, where he was hit by machine-gun fire. Reports indicate that he was killed instantly. His body was not recovered for some months, but he was eventually buried nearby. Today his body lies in the Grévillers British Cemetery.

In Australia his parents were left with a unique record of their son in what has become known as the “Lanser disc”. It remains the only known recorded letter made by an Australian soldier during the First World
War, and may be the only one of its kind left in the world. The last words his family heard from him were: “Well good-bye, everybody, and good luck.” Miller Lanser was 26 years old.

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 Second Lieutenant Henry Miller Lanser, and all those Australians who have given their
lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section