The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX4584) Private Lawrence Aldridge Bateup, 2/3rd Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (NX4584) Private Lawrence Aldridge Bateup, 2/3rd Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

NX4584 Private Lawrence Aldridge Bateup, 2/3rd Battalion, 2nd AIF
KIA 27 January 1945
Photograph: 066399

Story delivered 4 April 2016

Today we pay tribute to Private Lawrence Aldridge Bateup, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born on 2 November 1911 in Gunning, in the southern tablelands of New South Wales, Lawrence Bateup was the son of James Richard Bateup and Elizabeth Jane Bateup. He was living and working in Goulburn as a pastoral worker at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Soon the Australian government announced the raising of a Second Australian Imperial Force for overseas service.

Bateup was among of the first wave of volunteers when he enlisted on 8 November 1939, and he was posted to the 2/3rd Battalion, part of the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division.

The 2/3rd Battalion commenced training at Ingleburn Camp in November and was among the first to embark in January 1940 for overseas service. It spent the rest of the year training in Egypt and Palestine before participating in Australia’s first campaign of the war in January 1941, in the attack on Bardia and Tobruk in Libya.

In March the battalion left Libya for Greece with the rest of the 6th Division, where it took part in a disastrous Allied campaign there. In June and July it participated in the campaign in Syria and Lebanon, remaining in Syria as part of the garrison force until January 1942.

Following Japan’s entry into the war in December 1941, the 6th Division was called back from the Middle East. The 2/3rd left in March 1942, spending several months as part of the garrison forces on Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) before reaching Australia.

The 2/3rd Battalion first went into action against the Japanese along the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea, and participated in the beachhead battles. Later in the year it fought major engagements at Eora Creek, Oivi, and on the Sanananda Track.

The battalion spent 1943 and 1944 training in northern Queensland. In December 1944 it joined the rest of the 6th Division on the north coast of New Guinea to destroy the Japanese forces remaining in the Aitape–Wewak area.

For several days in January 1945 torrential rain caused severe flooding to Danmap River. Rising floodwaters washed away bridges, boulders, and trees. On the night of 26 January the machine-gun platoon in which Private Bateup served was marooned on a newly formed island in the floodwaters. That night the river rose six metres above its banks, and the men clambered to the remaining high ground and into the treetops.

Platoon commander Lieutenant G.H. Fearnside, a veteran of Tobruk and El Alamein, recalled this night as the most terrifying experience of his life:

"Some were killed outright in that mad onslaught of frenzied water and green timber; others were swirled beneath the press of timber and drowned; others were knocked unconscious and their bodies snatched and sent racing downstream, turning over and over, like otters."

By morning some of the company’s men had been washed or had floated away on logs to the safety of the banks gathered in the battalion area. Seven failed to report back, having drowned in the floodwaters. One of those was Private Bateup. He was 33 years old.

Lawrence Bateup’s name is listed on the Lae Memorial and the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea. His name is also listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, among around 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection where he can be seen in the front row, second from the right during a training exercise.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Lawrence Aldridge Bateup, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section