The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1471) Driver Raymond Dempsey, 10th Field Artillery Brigade, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (1471) Driver Raymond Dempsey, 10th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF, First World War.

1471 Driver Raymond Dempsey, 10th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF
KIA 5 April 1918
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 5 April 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Driver Raymond Dempsey, who was killed while fighting in France during the First World War.

Raymond Dempsey was born in 1896, one of 15 children of Joseph and Catherine Dempsey of Mosquito Island on the New South Wales mid-north coast. He attended school in the area and was exempted from participating in the government’s compulsory military training scheme of the time due to the difficulties of travelling to the nearest depot. After school, Dempsey worked as a dairyman and labourer on Mosquito Island.

Dempsey enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915, and after a period of training embarked for Egypt with reinforcements for the 7th Light Horse Regiment. The regiment had already been brought up to strength after Gallipoli, so Dempsey was transferred to a holding regiment for fresh reinforcements. However, as the AIF doubled in size in preparation for the fighting on the Western Front, Dempsey was later transferred to the artillery and formed the nucleus of the newly raised 10th Field Artillery Brigade. He was mustered as a driver with the 39th Battery, where he was responsible for at least two horses pulling the battery’s 18-pounder field gun and ammunition limber.

Dempsey sailed for France in March 1916 and helped provide fire support for the Australians at Fromelles, Pozières, and Mouquet Farm. The 10th Field Artillery Brigade spent several weeks in Belgium as the AIF recovered from its heavy losses on the Somme, and the following winter Dempsey was evacuated to England with a severe case of bronchitis.

Back in France, he was temporarily attached to the 4th Division Ammunition Column, which maintained a constant supply of shells between ammunition dumps and the gun batteries. As a driver, Dempsey would have been vulnerable to hostile artillery and small arms fire as he delivered high-explosive and shrapnel shells up to the guns.

In May 1917 Dempsey returned to the 10th Field Artillery Brigade and was later involved in the battle of Messines and in the Third Battle of Ypres. Although the gun batteries were heavily shelled by the German army, Dempsey survived unscathed.

In 1918 the German army launched an offensive intended split the British and French armies in northern France, and in March the 10th Field Artillery Brigade was among the Australian units rushed south to defend the city of Amiens. Along with two brigades of the 4th Division, Dempsey’s brigade took up positions near the town of Dernancourt in preparation for the German assault.

On 5 April three German divisions made an all-out assault on the Australian positions at Dernancourt in a concerted effort to drive west toward Amiens. Supporting the beleaguered infantry were the gunners of the 10th Field Artillery Brigade, who shelled the German positions and responded to the infantry’s calls for emergency barrages. The brigade’s war diary recalls the severe German counter-battery fire, with the guns firing no fewer than 12,300 rounds that day.

The Australians eventually repulsed the German attack, but victory came at a heavy price. German counter-battery fire had claimed the lives of 20 gunners, one of whom was Raymond Dempsey. Aged 22, he was buried at the communal cemetery at Fréchencourt. Just months previously, his older brother Donald had been killed in action near Passchendaele.

Raymond Dempsey’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section