The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4089) Sapper James William Hambleton, 2nd Australian Tunnelling 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (4089) Sapper James William Hambleton, 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company, First World War.

4089 Sapper James William Hambleton, 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company
DOD 18 December 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 18 December 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sapper James William Hambleton, who died while fighting in France during the First World War.

James Hambleton was born in 1872, one of five children of Charles and Hannah Hambleton of Buninyong, near Ballarat in southern Victoria. He went to school in the area before working in the gold mines. He married Matilda Allsop in Orange, New South Wales, in 1898, and on the eve of the First World War was working as a miner at Broken Hill.

Following a proposal advocating the establishment of military mining companies as part of the Australian Imperial Force, volunteers were sought from mining communities such as Broken Hill to form the Australian Mining Corps. Underground tunnelling had become widely recognised as a means of overcoming the challenges of trench warfare, with tunnellers setting charges beneath enemy positions. Once the scheme was formally approved in September 1915, recruiting for the Australian Mining Corps began in earnest.

Since Broken Hill was a remote community, Hambleton had to travel to the nearest depot at Adelaide to enlist in January 1916. After a period of training at Mitcham Barracks, he embarked from Melbourne with the 5th Australian Tunnelling Company for the training camps in England. Hambleton spent several months preparing on the Salisbury Plain near Wilshire before finally embarking for the fighting in France in August.

It was decided that the Australian Mining Corps would not fight in France as a cohesive battalion-sized unit, and its headquarters was dissolved and the battalion split into three independent Australian tunnelling companies. During this process Hambleton was absorbed into the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company, which entered the line in the relatively quiet sector near the town of Armentières. The Germans in this area were particularly active in mining and counter-mining, and Hambleton was responsible for driving saps towards the German trenches as well as assisting in the construction of deep dug-outs beneath the British front line.

The underground work of the Australian tunnellers was cold and cramped, made worse by the fact that they usually worked in six- to 12-hour shifts without rest, in darkness and flooded with water. As well as the ever-present dangers of collapses and German counter-mining, miners were particularly susceptible to disease. In December, Hambleton was evacuated to the 1st Australian Casualty Clearance Station with severe bronchitis. He died one week later. Aged 44 at the time, he was buried in the Estaires Communal Cemetery.

James Hambleton’s name 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 Sapper James Hableton, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section