The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (474) Lance Corporal Gerald Calcutt, 7th 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (474) Lance Corporal Gerald Calcutt, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

474 Lance Corporal Gerald Calcutt, 7th Battalion, AIF
KIA 24 May 1915
Photograph: P05413.015

Story delivered 18 June 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Gerald Calcutt, who was killed fighting on Gallipoli in the First World War.

Gerald Calcutt was born in 1890, one of eight children of Joseph and Lucinda Calcutt of Williamstown, Victoria; he also had eight half-siblings to his father’s first marriage. He attended Williamstown Grammar School and spent seven years working as a clerk for the Bank of Melbourne before the outbreak of the First World War.

Calcutt was among tens of thousands of men across Australia who rushed to the recruiting offices across the nation when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Two of his half-brothers had already seen service during the Boer War and later went on to serve in France with the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force.

Calcutt trained at Broadmeadows Camp as an original member of the 7th Battalion and embarked with the first AIF troopship convoy two months later. Following Ottoman Turkey’s entry into the war, the troopships bound for Europe were diverted to Egypt, and spent the following months training at Mena Camp near Cairo. It was around this time that Calcutt’s leadership qualities were recognised by his superiors, and he was promoted to lance corporal.

The 7th Battalion landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, forming part of the second wave assault that landed in the area of Fisherman’s Hut, just north of what would become known as Anzac Cove. Having come ashore under intense Turkish rifle fire early in the morning, Calcutt then participated in the confused fighting as the assault quickly mired in the rugged terrain. Within a week of landing the 7th Battalion had suffered heavily, losing five officers and 179 men killed or dead of wounds.

Following the battalion’s ill-fated attack at Kirithia, Calcutt was listed as missing in action. Eyewitnesses claim to have been with him after the 7th Battalion came ashore at Krithia and pushed inland towards third ridge. The men had been sent back down to the beach, when Calcutt was apparently wounded. Another report claimed he had been part of a patrol last seen in Shrapnel Valley on the day of the landings, while others claim to have seen him at Kirithia in May.

Calcutt remained missing until June 1916, when a court of inquiry officially determined that he had been killed at Anzac on 24 May 1915. Aged 25 at the time of his death, Calcutt’s remains were never recovered, and as such he is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, alongside 4,932 Australian and New Zealand soldiers
killed on Gallipoli with no known grave.

This was not the only loss for the Calcutt family during the war. Having enlisted some months later, Gerald Calcutt’s younger brother Brendan was taken prisoner following the 4th Brigade’s ill-fated assault on Hill 971, and he died of blood poisoning in Turkish captivity.

Lance Corporal Calcutt is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 others from the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section