The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (791) Lance Corporal Frederick Salmoni, 15th 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 Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (791) Lance Corporal Frederick Salmoni, 15th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

791 Lance Corporal Frederick Salmoni, 15th Battalion, AIF
KIA 26 April 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 22 March 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Frederick Salmoni, who was killed fighting on Gallipoli during the First World War.

Frederick Stanley Salmoni was born in 1893, one of five children of William and Mary Salmoni of Cardiff in Wales. After attending Stacey Road Board School, where he was an active member of the 14th Company Cardiff Boy’s Brigade, he worked as an apprentice fitter’s helper before immigrating to Australia. Although he had family in Queensland, this decision may have been motivated by the birth of his illegitimate son, Kenneth, with Rosie Baker, who lived less than a block away in the same street.

Whether or not this was the case, Salmoni joined his aunt and uncle in Childers in Queensland and took up a lease to farm 260 acres of timberland in the Good Night Scrub on the Burnell River in 1914. Several months later, when Britain declared war with Germany, he headed to Brisbane to join the Australian Imperial Force.

Salmoni enlisted in the AIF in September 1914, and after a period of training at Enoggera Military Camp he embarked as an original member of the 15th Battalion in December 1914. Originally bound for Europe, the Australian troopships were diverted to Egypt to protect British interests following Ottoman Turkey’s entry into the war. Salmoni spent the following months training at Mena Camp in Cairo until April 1915, when Australian and New Zealand troops were included in an allied effort to knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war by forcing a passage through the Dardanelles.

Around this time Salmoni’s superiors noted his command and leadership qualities and promoted him to lance corporal.

Salmoni landed on Gallipoli around 9 pm on 25 April 1915, forming part of the third wave that came ashore at what became known as Anzac Cove. By then the Australian effort to secure the third ridge above the beach had failed amid growing Turkish resistance. With Australian troops disoriented, out of touch, and lost in the formidable terrain, confused fighting reigned on the Gallipoli peninsula that night. Men of the 15th Battalion were sent to reinforce the left flank of the Australian positions and units that had suffered heavy casualties throughout the day. As the advance stalled, the battalion became isolated and was forced to withdraw to a more tenable position.

Salmoni’s platoon was sent to occupy a remote outpost in advance of the battalion’s positions. Turkish troops began massing against the outpost the following morning. Salmoni’s platoon commander refused the call to surrender, and decided to retire back to the battalion under heavy fire. Salmoni, along with most of his platoon, was killed in the return journey. He was 22.

His body lay in no man’s land until the informal truce on 24 May, when it was recovered and buried in the cemetery at Shrapnel Valley. His remains were later lost, and his name is listed on the Lone Pine memorial to the missing, among the 5,000 Australian and New Zealand troops killed fighting on Gallipoli who have no known grave.

Frederick Salmoni is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with 60,000 others from 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 Lance Corporal Frederick Salmoni, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section