The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (WX27166) Corporal Alfred Edward Woods, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second 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 (WX27166) Corporal Alfred Edward Woods, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

WX27166 Corporal Alfred Edward Woods, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Killed in training accident 21 May 1945

Story delivered 27 June 2017

Today we pay tribute to Corporal Alfred Edward Woods.

Alfred Woods was born on 9 April 1913 in Suva, Fiji, to Reverend Edward Loy Woods and Magdaline Wade Woods.

A hairdresser by profession, Woods lived in Maylands, a riverside suburb of Perth. On 26 February 1936 he was married to Lydia Jean Woods.

In February 1942 he was mobilised for the Militia, and in July he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force.

Following his enlistment, Woods served with various anti-aircraft batteries, before he was posted in May 1945 to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, at the large Australian Army training base at Kapooka.

On the afternoon of 21 May 1945, two groups were crowded within a dugout during a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges. One group consisted of 22 trainees and two instructors, alongside a smaller squad of three men and an instructor. Inside the dugout was 110 pounds of explosives stored for the day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown to this day, the explosives ignited. In the explosion, 24 men were killed instantly, two died of injuries shortly afterwards, and two more were severely injured.

Woods was killed in the accident. He was 32 years old.

Three days after the accident a funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga. Reported as “the biggest military funeral ever to take place in Australia”, almost half the population of the town took to the streets to watch the funeral parade. Twenty-six flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks in a cortege that included over 100 military vehicles
carrying members of the army and air force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

Woods’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Corporal Alfred Edward Woods, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section