The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3220) Private Clarence Victor Prew, 57th 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 (3220) Private Clarence Victor Prew, 57th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3220 Private Clarence Victor Prew, 57th Battalion, AIF
KIA 26 September 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 22 August 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Clarence Prew, who was killed fighting in Belgium in the First World War.

Clarence Victor Prew was born in 1881, one of ten children of John and Caroline Prew of Port Melbourne, Victoria. He attended school in South Melbourne and Abbotsford, after which he volunteered to serve on the Transvaal with the 2nd Regiment Scottish Horse during the Boer War. When he returned, Prew married Annie Sutherland and started an apprenticeship as an iron moulder at the Alderdice Foundry. The couple lived in Port Melbourne in the years before the war, where they had three children: Valmai, Victor, and Clement.

Prew enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Melbourne in November 1916. He spent several months training at Royal Park and embarked for England with a reinforcement group for the 57th Battalion. After further training on the Salisbury Plains, Prew sailed for France and joined the 57th Battalion after it was withdrawn from the fighting near Bullecourt in May 1917.

After Bullecourt, the focus of British operations shifted north into Belgium, where plans were underway for a major offensive to break out of the Ypres Salient. The offensive involved a series of advances towards the town of Passchendaele and British artillery bombarding the German defences in the weeks beforehand. Starting at Menin Road, the Australians participated in a number of successful operations that enabled the British army to advance towards Passchendaele. Prew was involved in the next step towards the German bastion at Polygon Wood, which fell to the Australian 5th Division on 26 September 1917.

Victory at Polygon Wood came at a cost, and the Australians suffered more than 5,000 casualties in just a few hours of fighting. Clarence Prew was among them, listed as missing after the battle. One eyewitness claimed he had been killed instantly by an artillery shell that landed among the advancing 57th Battalion, although this could not be verified. A court of inquiry held in July 1918 determined he had indeed been killed in action, but his whereabouts remained unknown. Aged 36 at the time of his death, he has no known grave, and is among the more than 6,000 Australian troops commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial to the missing.

Private Clarence Prew’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section