The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1729) Private John Percival Searle, 48th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Place Europe: Belgium, Flanders, West-Vlaanderen, Dickebusch, Ridge Wood Military Cemetery
Accession Number AWM2016.2.76
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 16 March 2016
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 (1729) Private John Percival Searle, 48th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

1729 Private John Percival Searle, 48th Battalion, AIF
KIA 16 October 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 16 March 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private John Percival Searle.

Percy Searle was born on 24 April 1889 at Pekina, South Australia, the second son of Richard and Mary Searle. He was educated at the local state school, first in Blackrock and later in Cowell. His family moved to Cowell on the Spencer Gulf in 1900, and his father took up farming. For most of his life Percy worked on the family farm with his father. He was a member of the choir of St Hugh’s Anglican Church in Cowell, and was known and a bright and jovial man.

Percy Searle enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in March 1916. He was posted to the 48th Battalion, and left for England after a few short weeks’ training. He underwent further training on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, before leaving to join his battalion in the battlefields of Belgian Flanders on 7 October 1916.

At that time the 48th Battalion was in camp close to the front line, undergoing training for an upcoming raid and providing working parties. On a number of occasions the camp was shelled by the German artillery, but recorded no casualties.

On 14 October the 48th Battalion relieved the 46th in the front line. It was a quiet time, although the front line was still dangerous. Two days after they moved into the line, the 48th Battalion came under a German bombardment for a significant part of the day.

Private Percy Searle was killed in action on 16 October 1916. Although we cannot be sure of the exact manner of his death, it was probably during the German bombardment of the front line. Aged just 27, Searle was buried nearby, and today lies in the Ridge Wood Military Cemetery at Dickebusch. He was the first man from Cowell to be killed in the war, and had been on the Western Front for just nine days.

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 John Percival Searle, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

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