The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (421) Private Andrew Olsen, 31st 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (421) Private Andrew Olsen, 31st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

421 Private Andrew Olsen, 31st Battalion, AIF
KIA 19 July 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 22 April 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Andrew Olsen.

Andrew Olsen was born on 25 November 1891 in Järvsö, Sweden to Anders and Karin Olsen. When Andrew was eight years old the family immigrated to Australia and settled in Queensland. He attended the local state school in Pialba and later became a labourer in the district.

Andrew was one of three sons of Anders and Karin to fight in the Great War, enlisting in July 1915. To get around the problem of not being a natural-born British subject, Olsen lied and said he had been born in Yangan, Queensland. He was accepted for service and posted to the 31st Battalion.

After a period of training in Australia Olsen was sent to Egypt, and from there to France to fight on the Western Front. Within weeks of arriving in France the 31st Battalion was called on to participate in an operation near the French village of Fromelles. Directed against a strong German position known as the Sugar Loaf salient, the attack was intended as a feint to draw German troops away from the Somme Offensive to the south.

The attack was launched at 6 pm on 19 July 1916. Almost immediately the attackers were met with heavy German machine-gun fire. Private Olsen had left the jumping-off trench with a group of friends. He and another man ran about 20 yards before diving into a shell hole for cover. Someone else came through and said, “come on, altogether”, to lead them on. Olsen’s best mate, Sergeant Nevin, later recalled:

with that Andrew jumped up as game as a lion and started off with me, but, poor boy, never went five yards till he fell at my feet. I said, “Are you
wounded, Andrew?”, but got no reply. I turned him over and asked him to speak but all in vain.

Private Olsen had been killed outright. He was 24 years old.

Nevin wrote to Olsen’s parents, as the pair had agreed to do in such circumstances. He wrote:

"we were like brothers together, and I broke [down] when he fell and I could do nothing for him … he was not spared to utter a word. He had a smile on his face, and I am sure he is all right. He never suffered any pain."

Andrew was not the only Olsen brother to die during the war. In 1917 his brother Peter, who had enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, was killed in action on the Western Front.

Private Andrew Olsen’s 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 Andrew Olsen, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section