The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (666) Corporal Robert Sheldrick, 38th 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 Jana Johnson, the story for this day was on (666) Corporal Robert Sheldrick, 38th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

666 Corporal Robert Sheldrick, 38th Battalion, AIF
KIA 13 October 1917
No photograph in collection – Family supplied

Story delivered 23 January 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Robert Sheldrick, who was killed fighting in Belgium in the First World War.

Robert Alfred Sheldrick was born in 1897, part of a large family born to John and Charlotte Sheldrick from the Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale in Victoria. Affectionately known as Bert, Sheldrick attended Flemington State School before completing an apprenticeship at Carter & Co Wholesalers and working as grocer. As well as being actively involved in senior cadets, he afterwards paraded part-time with the 58th Infantry (Essendon Rifles) Regiment.

Sheldrick enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force not long after his 18th birthday in March 1916. He underwent training at Campbellfield on the outskirts of Melbourne, and in June sailed for the training camps in England as an original member of the 38th Battalion. The battalion formed part of the 3rd Division, which was considered the most highly-trained division in the AIF at the time.

After some further training in England, Sheldrick embarked for France in December 1916. His battalion first entered the line in the relatively quiet Houplines sector near the town of Armentières, acclimatising to trench warfare on the Western Front. As well as conducting patrols of no man’s land at night, the 38th Battalion also carried out a number of trench raids on the Germans opposite them.

In June 1917 the 38th Battalion fought its first major action at nearby Messines, after which Sheldrick was promoted to corporal. When the focus of British operations shifted north to Belgium the 38th Battalion became involved in the Third Battle of Ypres. Sheldrick was transferred to the 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, and went forward into battle with the infantry to provide immediate fire support, lobbing 3-inch mortars onto the enemy positions.

On 13 October 1917 the 38th Battalion participated in an attack to capture Passchendaele village. The area’s low-lying terrain had been blasted by weeks of concentrated artillery bombardments which, coupled with the torrential rain, turned the battlefield into a muddy quagmire. Guns that would normally protect the advancing infantry could not be brought forward, leaving the men of the 38th Battalion without fire support when their attack faltered on the outskirts of the village amid mounting German resistance.

The Australians lost 2,000 casualties in the attack. Among them was Bert Sheldrick, who was listed as missing in action. According to one eyewitness, Sheldrick was killed by a German shell as he led his section into action that day, although no further details of his final moments could be established, and he was determined to have been killed in action. He was 20 years old.

Sheldrick’s body was never recovered, and as such he is one of more than 6,000 Australian soldiers commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing. His grieving mother and siblings inserted the following epitaph in the local newspaper:

The smile that shone of the face we loved
Has left us for ever more;
But we know he is waiting with a sweeter smile
To greet us on the golden shore.
Missing, ah missing always,
One that home so ill could spare
But when the roll is called up yonder
Our dear Bert will not be missing there.

Bert Sheldrick’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among 60,000 others from the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Corporal Robert Alfred Sheldrick, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian Military History Section