The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Lieutenant Hector James Abbott Ferguson, 1st Australian Division Signals 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on Lieutenant Hector James Abbott Ferguson, 1st Australian Division Signals Company, First World War.

Lieutenant Hector James Abbott Ferguson, 1st Australian Division Signals Company
KIA 21 October 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 17 December 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Hector James Abbott Ferguson.

Hector Ferguson was born on 14 December 1886 to James and Eliza Ferguson of Brisbane, Queensland. Nine children were born to the couple, with three sons dying in infancy. Hector’s father was a Scotsman who came to Australia in 1863 and, after initially settling in Sydney, moved to Brisbane, where he became the principal partner in an eminent printing and stationery house. As well as providing a privileged home for his family, James was a philanthropist who founded the first boys’ home in Brisbane, taking homeless boys and getting them suitable employment. Hector’s mother Eliza was from the well-known Abbott family of Dungog, New South Wales.

Abbotsford, the Ferguson family’s home in Enoggera, was known as a centre of hospitality. Hector attended the Brisbane Grammar School, serving in the school cadet corps, before undertaking a five-year apprenticeship with Wilson Engineering Works to become a consulting engineer. He worked for the engineering firm Messrs Wildridge and Sinclair, supervising the equipment of several important meat-freezing and other engineering works in Queensland. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War he moved to Newcastle.

Four of the Ferguson boys enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, while the eldest brother, Eric, stayed home to continue his father’s business. Their mother, too, did her part by engaging in Red Cross work, holding fundraising fetes in the grounds of Abbotsford, and hosting parties for soldiers training at Enoggera. Hector was the first of her sons to enlist, doing so within weeks of the outbreak of war. His engineering background quickly saw him posted to the 1st Divisional Signalling Company.

Ferguson was present at the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and served with distinction throughout the Gallipoli campaign. He received special mention in divisional orders for his conspicuous gallantry and valuable services in July 1915, and was promoted several times.

In March 1916 Ferguson’s unit arrived in France to fight on the Western Front. Ferguson soon received his commission, and he was further promoted to lieutenant in July. Ferguson continued to serve with courage and determination, often in very dangerous circumstances. In early 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in “leading his men and personally repairing unbroken telephone lines under very heavy fire”.

Later that year the 1st Division Signals Company was on the Ypres Salient. In late September Ferguson was in charge of a cable-burying party, later taking charge of all forward communications in his sector of the front line. Once again he displayed “great personal bravery, energy and powers of organisation in maintaining communication and personally led linesmens’ parties for repairing broken cable routes and lines during the heavy shell fire”. He was recommended for and received a bar to his Military Cross, as it was “mainly due to his untiring efforts that the forward communication … was maintained during the operation”.

On 21 October 1917 Hector Ferguson was killed in action. He would never know that his mother had died the week before. He was buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery in West Vlaanderen, aged 31.

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.

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

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section