The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1281) Private Robert Sinclair, 5th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (1281) Private Robert Sinclair, 5th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1281 Private Robert Sinclair, 5th Battalion
KIA 25 April 1915
Story delivered 10 June 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Robert Sinclair, who was killed fighting on Gallipoli in the First World War.

Robert Hector Sinclair was born in 1880, one of six children born to Peter and Eliza Sinclair of the Melbourne suburb of Carlton in Victoria. We know very little of Robert’s formative years, other than he worked as a bricklayer’s tuckpointer, lived with his brother Arthur in Glenhuntly, and that both of his parents had died before war was declared in August 1914.

Sinclair enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in November 1915 and spent several months training at Broadmeadows Camp on the outskirts of Melbourne. He embarked for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 5th Battalion in February 1915. Originally raised to fight in Europe, the AIF was diverted to Egypt to protect British interests following Ottoman Turkey’s entry into the war. Sinclair joined the battalion in Mena Camp in Cairo where they trained until April 1915, when Australian and New Zealand forces were included in an allied effort to force a passage through the Dardanelles and knock Turkey out of the war.

Sinclair landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, forming part of the second wave of troops that came ashore at Anzac Cove before dawn. Instead of climbing the feature that became known as Plugge’s Plateau and making for Hill 971, they were instead sent to Pine Ridge to reinforce the 6th Battalion, which was under growing fire from Turkish troops. When the Australian attack stalled amid mounting Turkish resistance, the fighting in the rugged terrain became sporadic and confused. Over the following days, the Australian and New Zealand troops succeeded in establishing a beachhead and a front line that changed very little over the remaining eight months.

The Anzacs suffered heavily at the landing, incurring over 2,000 dead and wounded in just a few days of fighting. Robert Sinclair was among them, although the historical records tell us little about his final moments. Aged 35 at the time of his death, his final resting place remains unknown and today he is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial, along with more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand servicemen killed in the fighting on Gallipoli with no known grave.

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 Private Robert Sinclair, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section