The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX58417) Captain Harry Andrew Hampton Garner, 1st Company Australian Army Service Corps, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2017.1.42
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 11 February 2017
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Micheal Kelly, the story for this day was on (NX58417) Captain Harry Andrew Hampton Garner, 1st Company Australian Army Service Corps, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

NX58417 Captain Harry Andrew Hampton Garner, 1st Company Australian Army Service Corps, 2nd AIF
KIA 11 February 1942
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 11 February 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Harry Andrew Hampton Garner, who was killed on active service during the Second World War.

Born in Burwood, New South Wales, on 13 May 1919, Harry Garner was the son of Henry and Florence Mary Garner. He attended the local school before working as a clerk.

Harry Garner came from a proud military family. His father, Henry, had served in the British and Australian armies, and his brother, Edward, and sister, Florence, both served in the Second World War. Edward was a captain in the 7th Division, and Florence was a sergeant in the Australian Women’s Army Service, and both survived the conflict.

In July 1940 Garner enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force and was posted to the 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps. During training he rose quickly through the ranks and was promoted to lieutenant. In February 1941 he embarked in Sydney for overseas service aboard the famous ocean liner the Queen Mary, which had been converted to a troopship.

The Queen Mary arrived in Singapore with the first detachment of the 8th Division, which would form part of the British and Commonwealth garrison forces assembled at Malaya. The Japanese invasion of Malaya began just after midnight on 8 December 1941, and from mid-January 1942 the units of the 8th Division were involved in fierce fighting on the Malayan peninsula.

By February the British and Commonwealth forces had been pushed back to the island of Singapore, and on the night of 8 February Japanese forces began landing. Units of the 8th Division bore the brunt of the landing, and heavy casualties were inflicted on either side.

On 11 February Harry Garner was killed in action. He was one of almost 1,800 Australians killed during the month-long campaign in Malaya and Singapore, and one of almost 900 killed in just one week of fighting on the island.

Anecdotal reports from survivors of the Australian Army Service Corps report that Garner was called upon to take out a patrol, despite being a logistics officer and not well trained in fighting. When his patrol encountered the Japanese, Garner told his patrol to retreat. However, he was captured, and members of the patrol believe he was beheaded. He was 22 years old.

Posthumously promoted to captain, Garner’s body was never recovered, and today his name is listed upon the Kranji War Memorial just north of the city of Singapore.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Harry Andrew Hampton Garner, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section

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