The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (347) Private Charles Powley, 7th 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (347) Private Charles Powley, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

347 Private Charles Powley, 7th Battalion, AIF
KIA 25 April 1915
No photograph in collection
Story delivered 11 March 2017
Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Charles Powley, who was killed on Gallipoli in the First World War.

Charles Powley was born in 1894, one of ten children of Edward and Arabella Powley of Boweya, near Glenrowan in northern Victoria. Known affectionately as “Charlie” by his family and friends, he attended Wangaratta High School where he was involved in senior cadets. On the eve of the First World War, he was working as a blacksmith at T. Mason Coach and Wagon Builders in Wangaratta.

Charles Powley enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force with his older brother Jack in Wangaratta just days after Australia went to war in August 1914. The pair spent several weeks training at Broadmeadows Camp on the outskirts of Melbourne, after which they embarked for the fighting in Europe with the first Australian troopship convoy in November 1914. The convoy was later diverted to Egypt to protect British interests in the area following Turkey’s entry into the war.

The 7th Battalion spent the following months training at Mena Camp near Cairo. The monotony of life in the desert changed in April 1915 when the Australian and New Zealand troops received orders to prepare for an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula. Their effort would be part of a much broader allied attempt to breach the Dardanelles by naval force, shell Constantinople, and force Turkey out of the war.

On 25 April 1915 troops of the 7th Battalion landed at what later became known as Anzac Cove, forming part of the second wave attack that came ashore in the area called Fisherman’s Hut. While most Australian troops
had come ashore unopposed, a Turkish platoon occupying a knoll behind Fisherman’s Hut poured devastating and accurate rifle fire into the 7th Battalion as they rowed ashore. Of the 120 in the first four boatloads, just 40 evaded death and wounding.

Charles Powley was shot as soon he landed at Anzac Cove. Jack Powley later wrote home from a hospital in Egypt to say: “No words can tell how heart-broken I am … I knelt down beside him and said ‘good-bye’, but he did not answer.” This letter reached the Powley family in Boweya several weeks before his parents were notified through official channels.

Aged 21 at the time of his death, Charles Powley was buried at No. 2 Outpost Cemetery near Fisherman’s Hut on Gallipoli . His grieving family inserted the following epitaph in the local newspaper several weeks after his death:
We loved him in life, he is dear to us still
In grief we must bend to God’s holy will;
Our sorrow is great our loss hard to bear,
But the angels will tend our dear Charlie with care.

Charles Powley is listed on the Roll of Honour 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 Private Charles Powley, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section