The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (79) Lance Corporal Harold Frederick Cade 10th 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 , the story for this day was on (79) Lance Corporal Harold Frederick Cade 10th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

79 Lance Corporal Harold Frederick Cade 10th Battalion, AIF
KIA 21 August 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 21 August 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Harold Frederick Cade.

Harold Cade was born on 3 June 1888 in Adelaide to William and Esther Cade. He was the youngest of four siblings and grew up on West Terrace.

Cade attended Currie Street Public School and later Pulteney Street Church of England School. He was a gifted sportsman, excelling in cricket, lacrosse, and Australian Rules Football. Cade played senior football for both the West Adelaide Bloods and the Port Adelaide Magpies.

In 1908 he joined the 1st South Australian Scottish Regiment and later served in a garrison artillery battery on Thursday Island. After five years of service, he took his discharge.

Cade was working as a salesman when the First World War began. He enlisted on 19 August 1914 at Morphettville Racecourse, joining the 10th Battalion. Cade was initially posted to C Company, but the following month was transferred to battalion headquarters. He embarked with the 10th Battalion from Outer Harbour in October aboard the transport ship Ascanius. After a brief halt in Fremantle, the ship steamed as part of the 1st AIF convoy to Egypt.

After several months training in the desert, the 3rd Brigade, which included the 10th Battalion, sailed for Lemnos in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign. Cade went ashore in the first wave in the pre-dawn hours on 25 April and remained with the battalion until late August.

When his commanding officer was temporarily promoted to command 3rd Brigade, Cade was taken along as Colonel Stanley Price-Weir’s batman.

The following month Price-Weir was evacuated sick to Malta and he took Cade, who was also ill, with him. Both were sent to England to convalesce and, later, take over the Australian Reinforcement Camp at Weymouth.

In January 1916 Cade broke camp and went absent without leave for five days. He was detained before being court-martialled, at which point he was awarded a further three days confinement and the loss of 12 day’s pay.

Cade sailed for France at the end of May and was initially sent to Étaples. It wasn’t until the end of July that he re-joined the 10th Battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties during the fighting at Pozières. He was promoted to lance corporal in early August.

On 19 August the 10th Battalion was moved into the front line opposite Mouquet Farm. It took part in the disastrous attack two days later and suffered heavy casualties. Lance Corporal Cade was one of those killed in the attack. The manner of his death is unknown and his body was never recovered.

He was 28 years old.

After the war, Cade’s name was added to the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial to the Missing. It also appears 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 but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal Frederick Harold Cade, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section