The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (31220) Gunner Harold Inglis, 5th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF,First World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2017.1.79
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 20 March 2017
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
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 Josie Dunham, the story for this day was on (31220) Gunner Harold Inglis, 5th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF,First World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

31220 Gunner Harold Inglis, 5th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF
DOW 19 January 1918
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 March 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Harold Inglis.

Harold Inglis was born on 12 April 1892, the youngest son of John and Elizabeth Inglis of Port Adelaide in South Australia. Harold’s grandfather had been the Harbourmaster at Port Adelaide for many years, and was a well-known figure in the area. His father was the chief draftsman for the Harbours Board for many years before working for the Adelaide Steamship Company. Harold attended the Le Fevre Peninsula School but steered away from family tradition and became an accountant. He was a member of St Paul’s Choir and the Port Adelaide Sailing Club, where he proved highly popular.

Harold Inglis enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in late 1916. By this stage his cousin, Private William Young, who had grown up in the Inglis household, had been missing for three months after the fighting around Pozières. He was later confirmed as having been killed in action at Pozières.

Inglis left Australia in December 1916 on board the troopship Orontes. He was sent to England, where he trained with the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Column before transferring to the 5th Field Artillery Brigade as a gunner.

Although often based far behind the front lines, field artillery batteries were under constant danger from the German guns. Each side tried mercilessly to neutralise the threat posed by the guns of the other, by blowing them up, or by killing, gassing, or wounding their crews.

In early November 1917 the 5th Field Artillery Brigade was operating near the front line in Belgium when it came under heavy gas shelling. Gunner Inglis was gassed badly enough to be evacuated from the front line, and took a few weeks to return to his unit.

Not long after his return, Inglis’s battery came under fire near Oostheve Farm. He was one of three men wounded that day, suffering wounds to his left forearm and thigh that were not considered particularly serious at the time. He was evacuated to hospital near Boulogne but took a turn for the worse, and he died of his wounds on 19 January 1918.

Gunner Harold Inglis was buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery, where he lies under the words “ever remembered”. He was 25 years old.

His 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 Gunner Harold Inglis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (31220) Gunner Harold Inglis, 5th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF,First World War. (video)