The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (5679) Lance Corporal Sydney Cooper, 48th 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 Dennis, the story for this day was on (5679) Lance Corporal Sydney Cooper, 48th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

5679 Lance Corporal Sydney Cooper, 48th Battalion, AIF
KIA 11 April 1917
Photograph: P11254.001

Story delivered 21 January 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Sydney Roy Cooper, who was killed in action during the First World War.

Sydney Cooper was born in 1895 one of ten children of John and Margaret Cooper of Kingston in South Australia. He attended school in the Kingston area and worked as a famer in the district. Following school, Cooper paraded with the 22nd Light Horse Regiment – a Militia unit that operated in the area – and as soon as he turned 21 in April 1916 he travelled to Adelaide to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force.

Cooper spent the following two months training in Adelaide before embarking for England with a reinforcement group for the 10th Battalion. After further training at Perham Downs on the Salisbury Plains, he was transferred to the 48th Battalion and embarked for France in October. He was taken on strength when the battalion was resting behind the lines near Amiens. He was fortunate enough not to participate in any further fighting on the Somme, but endured the relentless winter that followed as the Australians occupied the line between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt. It was around this time that Cooper was recognised for his leadership skills, and was promoted to lance corporal.

After the bitter winter of 1916–17, the Germans abandoned the positions they had held so tenaciously and withdrew to a new and more formidable position known as the Hindenburg Line, some 40 kilometres away. Cooper participated in the push that followed as British and Australian troops followed up the withdrawal. By April the Australian 4th Division stood before the Hindenburg Line at the village of Bullecourt.

The allied troops, including the 48th Battalion, attacked unsuccessfully on 11 April 1917, losing more than 3,000 Australian casualties. Among them was Sydney Cooper, who was last seen firing a Lewis gun in the captured German trenches before being severely wounded by a shell. According to eyewitnesses, “the machine-gun and shell-fire was very heavy on the spot where Cooper lay and the stretcher-bearers were unable to bring him in”. He remained officially missing until a court of inquiry held in December 1917 determined that he had been killed in fighting on 11 April. He was 22 years old.

Sydney Cooper is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, alongside 10,500 Australians killed in France who have no known grave.

His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War. His photograph is displayed today by 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 Lance Corporal Sydney Cooper, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section