The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3196) Lance Corporal Thomas Walsh, 55th Battalion, 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 Craig Baralle, the story for this day was on (3196) Lance Corporal Thomas Walsh, 55th Battalion, First World War.

3196 Lance Corporal Thomas Walsh, 55th Battalion
KIA 26 September 1917

Story delivered 20 April 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Thomas Walsh.

Thomas Walsh was born in 1890 and was one of 12 children of Patrick and Elizabeth Walsh of the village of Ben Lomond in the New England region of northern New South Wales. Little is known of his formative years, other than he was affectionately known as “Tom” and attended school in the Ben Lomond area. He worked as a farmer for a while, but was employed as a tram conductor in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst on the eve of the First World War.

Thomas Walsh enlisted at Victoria Barracks in Sydney in August 1915, and after a period of training at Liverpool Camp, embarked for the training camps in Egypt with a reinforcement group for the newly-raised 17th Battalion. By the time Walsh arrived, the Gallipoli campaign had ended. The following months were spent reorganising and training as the AIF effectively doubled in size before sailing for the fighting on the Western Front. Walsh was transferred to the 55th Battalion as part of this restructure and sailed for France in June 1916. Less than two weeks later, he was involved in the AIF’s first major action on the Western Front, when the 5th Division attacked the German positions near the village of Fromelles. Although the 55th Battalion played a minor role in the attack, it still suffered heavily, with half the battalion becoming casualties in less than 24 hours. Tom survived the action unscathed, and remained in the Fromelles area until the battalion transferred to the Somme later in the year.

Walsh participated in all the major actions fought by the 55th Battalion throughout 1917. He took part in the advance that followed when the German army retired to its Hindenburg Line defences in February and March, and fought at Doignies on 2 April, where he again survived unscathed from what was ultimately a costly action for the 55th Battalion. Afterwards, Walsh’s leadership qualities were recognised by his superiors, and he received a battlefield promotion to lance corporal. In May, Walsh attended a signals school as the 55th Battalion prepared to take part in the fighting at Bullecourt, then went on leave in Britain before the focus of British operations shifted north to Belgium later in the year.

Walsh re-joined the 55th Battalion in August, just before it moved up into the Ypres sector. There, the British were planning a major offensive intended to break out of the Ypres Salient and push the German army back from their submarine bases along the Belgian coastline. Starting on 20 September 1917, Australian troops took part in a series of highly successful attacks with limited objectives that pushed the German army back towards the village of Passchendaele. Properly supported by thousands of field guns and other artillery, they methodically bit and held ground that had been in German hands since the winter of 1914.

The 55th Battalion played a pivotal part in the second stage of the advance towards Passchendale, the capture of Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917. Supported by a creeping barrage that rolled ahead of the advancing infantry “like a Gippsland bushfire”, Australian troops of the 5th Division successfully captured Polygon Wood and the butte that gave the enemy dominating views of the Ypres area. Although a success, the victory came at a heavy price, with the 5th Division suffering some 3,700 casualties.

Among the missing was Tom Walsh. A court of inquiry held in December 1917 determined he had been killed in the attack on Polygon Wood. Aged 27 at the time of this death, his body was never recovered from the Polygon Wood battlefield, and today he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in the nearby town of Ieper, along with the 6,187 Australians killed fighting in Belgium who have no known graves.

Sadly, Thomas Walsh’s death was not the only time during the war years that the family felt the loss of a family member: Thomas’s older brother Patrick had enlisted with the New Zealanders and was killed fighting with the Wellington Battalion in their assault on Chunuck Bair on Gallipoli in August 1915.

Thomas Walsh’s 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 Lance Corporal Thomas Walsh, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Unit