The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2260) Trooper Francis James Dennis, 3rd Australian Camel 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (2260) Trooper Francis James Dennis, 3rd Australian Camel Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2260 Trooper Francis James Dennis, 3rd Australian Camel Battalion, AIF
KIA 6 November 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 24 November 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Trooper Francis James Dennis.

Born in 1895 in Quorn, South Australia, and popularly known as Frank, Francis Dennis was educated at the local public school and was employed as a labourer in the area when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 15 January 1916.

He was initially assigned to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment and embarked that April aboard HMAT Bakara, sailing for Egypt. Arriving in early June, he was briefly absorbed into the main unit, but a month later was transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps.

The Imperial Camel Corps was formed in order to deal with the revolt of pro-Turkish Senussi tribesmen in Egypt’s Western Desert. In early 1916 it undertook long patrols and brief skirmishes with the Senussi, and in the latter part of the year was transferred to the Sinai Desert to take part in operations against the Turkish army. Here the battalions of the Imperial Camel Corps fought alongside Australian light horse units at Romani, Magdhaba, and – in January 1917 – at Rafa.

The British and dominion forces began moving north through Palestine, and the camel corps was integral in this advance. One of its main engagements was the second battle of Gaza on 19 April 1917, during which it suffered heavy losses.

Trooper Dennis had come through all such battles unscathed, but at the end of June he became ill and spent a little over a month in hospital and convalescing, returning to duty in early August.

In November the camel corps was part of operations to destroy the Turkish defensive line between Gaza and Beersheba. On 6 November 1917 Dennis’s battalion was ordered to attack at Tel el Khuweilfeh. Later, Corporal Les Colbert wrote to Dennis’s mother to tell her what happened:

We went into action, we gained the foot of a big ridge and a rush was called for. Your boy with the reminder of his gun team took up a position on the left of our Company. I was a bit to the right. Shortly after taking up this position, Frank – whilst on the gun firing – received his wound. He lived for about an hour and died very peacefully.

Five men in Frank’s team had been awarded Distinguished Conduct Medals for the action, and Colbert thought that “one of the DCM’s would have been certainly Frank’s had he lived as it was his gameness in rushing up to the position that won the day for us”.

Dennis was buried nearby by the battalion chaplain. Following the end of the war, his body was exhumed and reinterred at the Beersheba War Cemetery. He was 22 years old.

In the following months Dennis’s mother received a letter from Major Nobbs, the officer commanding his company. During the fighting, he said, Dennis and another soldier had moved a gun into place “which practically saved the position”. Both were killed in doing so. Nobbes went on:

He was a boy any parent could be proud of when he was alive and still more so now he is dead as he did one of the bravest deeds I have seen.

Trooper Francis James Dennis is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Trooper Francis James Dennis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Emma Campbell
Military History Section