The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Second Lieutenant Edward Lionel Austin Butler, 12th 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on Second Lieutenant Edward Lionel Austin Butler, 12th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Second Lieutenant Edward Lionel Austin Butler, 12th Battalion, AIF
DOW 23 August 1916
Photograph: H05690

Story delivered 24 August 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Second Lieutenant Edward Lionel Austin Butler.

Edward Butler, known as “Leo”, was born on 10 April 1883, the eldest son of Edward and Fanny Butler. His father was a distinguished solicitor in Hobart, and a talented cricketer who served for 30 years on the Tasmanian Cricket Committee. Leo followed in his father’s footsteps as a solicitor with Butler, McIntyre & Butler in Hobart, and being admitted to the Supreme Court of Tasmania. He then moved to Melbourne, working for Blake & Riggall and Mr Justice a’Beckett before returning to Tasmania.

Like his father and many of his uncles, Butler was also a gifted cricketer, and established “a considerable reputation as a most fearless batsman” in both Tasmania and Melbourne. He was a tall man of six-foot-two, and had a tendency to stoop as he walked, but he was a powerful hitter. It was reported that “when he was at the wicket, spectators could always rely on seeing a lively exhibition”. He was universally popular, with an “unfailing good temper and lovable, sunny nature [that] made him friends on every side of in the field of sport or games … in the social world and among the humblest classes”.

Butler enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915 and began an officers’ training course, receiving his commission as second lieutenant in March 1916. He left Australia that month on board the Orontes and spent a short period in Egypt before being sent to fight in France. After a brief time at the Australian Training Depot, he finally joined the 12th Battalion in the field in July 1916.

A number of Butler’s relatives were also serving, including his brother Angas, who served with the Royal Engineers, and his cousin Charles Bean, who was serving as Australia’s official war correspondent. Bean would later write the official histories of Australia in the war, and was instrumental in the founding of the Australian War Memorial. Bean recalled meeting Butler in his billets in France, saying:
"he was the same big Leo of the tennis court or the camps on Sandy Bay Beach … with his web kit thrown loosely around him. Of course he was quite a junior officer but in some sort of way Leo has always been a leader, and I daresay his seniors looked up to him there, too."

Butler’s first experience of battle came near the French village of Pozières. He had missed the initial capture of the village, but was present for the series of small, desperate battles that inched the 1st Australian Corps’ line towards Mouquet Farm. On 22 August 1916 Second Lieutenant Butler was called into the front line to relieve Captain Vowles. About half an hour later a shell exploded close to his position, killing one man and blowing off Butler’s left leg below the knee. He was carried out through congested trenches and heavy shell-fire, finally reaching a regimental aid post in a deep dug-out. Despite all the efforts to save him, Second Lieutenant Butler died there the following day.

Charles Bean sent the news of Butler’s death through to the latter’s parents in a cable that read: “Leo Butler, after splendid work in battle, mortally wounded. Doctor, solders devoted. Risked lives carrying in, but died hospital, painlessly.” Butler was 33 years old. He was buried in the Puchevillers British Cemetery under the words, “It is as a soldier he will stand before the Great White Throne.”

In 1917 a stained-glass window was dedicated to Butler in St David’s Cathedral in Hobart. The dean addressed a large congregation, describing the deceased as being:
"of a gentle, sweet nature, with that faculty for making all who came in contact with him love him. He had a reverence for old people, and a love for children, as a son, his good, virtuous and dutiful life brought no sorrow, no anxiety to his parents … [his] memory and influence should be an inspiration to those who following him."

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. 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 Second Lieutenant Edward Lionel Austin Butler, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section