The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6462) Private William Wareham Biden, 3rd 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (6462) Private William Wareham Biden, 3rd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

6462 Private William Wareham Biden, 3rd Battalion, AIF
KIA 14 April 1918
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 17 July 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Wareham Biden.

William Biden was born in Armidale in 1891, the oldest of Ernest and Fannie Biden’s three children. His father was a draughtsman in the Lands Department, and the family moved regularly, living in Armidale, Maitland, Hay, and Sydney. He attended the Petersham Superior Public School in Sydney, and went on to become a wool-classer. He was noted to be “an athlete of more than ordinary prowess”, and won various competitions both before and after enlisting.

Biden followed his younger brother Noel into the Australian Imperial Force in October 1915. Noel Biden had been a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and went to Gallipoli with the Australian engineers. Less than two months after William enlisted, Captain Noel Biden died of paratyphoid after being evacuated from the Gallipoli peninsula. He was 22 years old.

Private William Biden was posted to the 3rd Battalion. He underwent extended training in Australia and did not leave for overseas service until late 1916. He arrived in England in November for further training, and obtained a first-class qualification in a Lewis gun course, as well as taking several other instructional courses at Jellalabad Barracks, Tidworth. He did not join his battalion on the Western Front until November 1917.

The 3rd Battalion spent the winter of 1917–18 quietly. On the 14th of April it was in the front line near the French village of Strazeele as its artillery fired on the enemy. At 6.40 am the Germans attacked the Australian positions in a succession of waves. Although the Australians were pushed back, the line did not break and was stabilised the following day. It had, however, sustained significant casualties, one of whom was Private William Biden.

Biden’s body was lost in the desperate fighting that followed, and today he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial to the Missing. He was 27 years old.

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 William Wareham Biden, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section