The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (106) Gunner Edward Hanns, 1st 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (106) Gunner Edward Hanns, 1st Field Artillery Brigade, AIF, First World War.

106 Gunner Edward Hanns, 1st Field Artillery Brigade, AIF
DOW 20 July 1917
Photograph: P03326.002

Story delivered 20 July 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Edwards Hanns, who died while fighting in the First World War.

Edward Hanns was born in 1894, one of seven children of Havilah and Elizabeth Hanns of Bourke, New South Wales. Known affectionately as “Ted”, he attended the convent school in Bourke before joining the Royal Australian Artillery in 1913. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914 and embarked with the first troopship convoy as an original member of the 1st Field Artillery Battery several months later. Originally heading to Europe, he disembarked in Egypt following Turkey’s entry into the war.

Mustered as a gunner, Hanns formed part of a six-man gun crew operating 18-pounder field guns, training at Mena Camp near Cairo. On the morning of 25 April 1915 the 1st Field Artillery Brigade landed on Gallipoli with the 1st Division. Hanns was evacuated from the peninsula in October suffering from influenza, and did not re-join his battery until it returned to Egypt following the evacuation.

Hanns spent the following months training in Egypt as the AIF underwent a major restructure in preparation for its departure for the Western Front. He embarked for France in March 1916, and entered the line for the first time in France in the relatively quiet sector outside the town of Armentières. There the gunners bombarded the German lines and supported Australian troops in a number of trench raids, as well as laying down counter-battery fire.

Hanns participated in all the major battles on the Somme in 1916, including the bitter fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm, and holding the line between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt.

By mid-1917 the allied focus of operations had shifted north into Belgium, where the British launched a major offensive to break out of the Ypres Salient. In June gunners from the 1st Field Artillery Brigade moved up to Ypres to prepare for the offensive that would begin in earnest three months later.

On 20 July the 1st Field Artillery Brigade had just taken over the gun pits previously occupied by British artillery units on the edge of Zillebeke Lake when a German shell landed in the line, killing and wounding a number of gunners. Edward Hanns was one of those wounded, and with severe shell wounds to his right arm and thigh he evacuated through a number of aid posts and dressing stations before reaching the 14th Casualty Clearance Station at Remy Siding near the town of Poperinge. Here he succumbed to his wounds and died several hours later. Aged 24, he was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

The name of Private Hanns 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 Gunner Edward Hanns, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section