The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2643) Private Thomas William Tasker, 4th Machine Gun Company, 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 (2643) Private Thomas William Tasker, 4th Machine Gun Company, First World War.

2643 Private Thomas Tasker, 4th Machine Gun Company
DOW 8 May 1918
Photograph: E01730

Story delivered 1 August 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Tasker, who was killed while fighting in France in the First World War.

Thomas Tasker was born in 1896, one of five children of Charles and Eva Tasker of Wyndham on the New South Wales far south coast. He attended state school in the Wyndham area and afterwards worked as a labourer in Queensland.

At six foot tall, Tasker may have appeared much older than he was, and it is said that he and a friend enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the age of 17 and stowed away on a troopship with men of the 9th Battalion, bound for Gallipoli. No record of this has been found, but Tasker did enlist in Brisbane in May 1915, and after a period of training embarked with a reinforcement group for the 15th Battalion.

Tasker joined the battalion as it rested on the island of Lemnos, and spent several months on Gallipoli. After this he trained in Egypt, and as part of the “doubling up” of the AIF he was transferred to the 4th Machine Gun Company and attached to the newly raised 4th Division. He sailed for France and the Western Front in June 1916.

Mustered as a machine-gunner, Tasker formed part of an eight-man gun crew that operated the Vickers heavy machine-gun. As well as covering no man’s land from any potential attack, the gunners of the 4th Machine Gun Company also fired indirectly through coordinated barrages. When the 4th Division entered the line near Armentières in June 1916 the gunners supported a number of trench raids and prevented German troops from raiding Australian lines.

In July the 4th Division was transferred to the Somme, where it participated in heavy fighting in the area around Pozières and Mouquet Farm. In August Tasker was wounded in the arm when German troops launched a counter-attack on Australian lines, and he was evacuated to England for recovery. He underwent training at Grantham and Perham Downs before returning to France the following May. By then the focus of British operations had shifted north into Belgium, and the 4th Machine Gun Company participated in the attack at Messines in June 1917. Tasker also participated in the fighting at Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, and Passchendaele.

In March 1918 the German army launched a major offensive to break the stalemate on the Western Front. The intention was to split the British and French armies and strike at their major logistics and support hub at Amiens, which was vital for the conduct of Allied operations on the Western Front. As German troops stormed the old Somme battlefields the Australians were rushed south to help defend Amiens.

In May 1918 the 4th Machine Gun Company was holding part of the line near the newly recaptured town of Villers-Bretonneux. German artillery routinely shelled the Australian positions during the day, while aircraft bombed them at night. At some point on 5 May Tasker was severely wounded. He was evacuated to a clearing station north of Amiens but succumbed to his wounds later that day.

Aged just 20, Tasker was buried at the Pernois British Cemetery. A small epitaph on his headstone reads: “He gave his life, our lives to save.”

Thomas Tasker’s name 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.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section