The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6741) Private Charles William Thomas Gray, (6737) Private Victor John Gray, 12th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (6741) Private Charles William Thomas Gray, (6737) Private Victor John Gray, 12th Battalion, First World War.

6741 Private Charles William Thomas Gray, 12th Battalion
KIA 15 April 1917
Photograph: P06294.002

6737 Private Victor John Gray, 12th Battalion
KIA 10 April 1917
Photograph: P06294.001

Story delivered 29 June 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Privates Charles and Victor Gray.

Victor John Gray was born in 1893, and his brother Charles William Thomas Gray was born two years later. They were the eldest sons of 13 children born to John and Louisa Gray of Fern Tree near Hobart in Tasmania. Both attended the local school in Fern Tree.

After finishing school Victor went to Wellington in New Zealand, where he worked as a labourer. Charlie remained in Tasmania, and worked as a farmer. The two were described by their father as “bushmen”, skilled in a number of occupational pursuits common throughout Tasmania at the time, which included timber cutting, animal trapping, and track cutting.

Following the outbreak of war in 1914, Victor Gray enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. However, he was able to transfer to the Australian Imperial Force, where he was joined by his brother Charlie at Claremont military camp. They sailed for England with reinforcements to the 12th Battalion in September 1916. After several months training on the Salisbury Plain in England, Victor sailed for France in late February 1917, joining his battalion near Le Barque on the Somme later that month. Charlie joined him shortly afterwards, and both went on to serve in the same platoon, number 15 platoon of D Company.

It was around this time that the German army abandoned their Somme defences and withdrew to the more formidable Hindenburg Line. Over the following weeks, Australian and British troops followed up on the
German withdrawal, skirmishing with the German rear guard and engaging enemy machine-gun positions intended to delay the advancing columns. By the beginning of April, they had reached the outpost villages integrated into the Hindenburg Line defences, and stood poised ready to assault them.

One of the outpost villages was Boursies, which the 12th Battalion attacked on 8 April. The next day, the men of D Company wheeled around the left flank of Boursies village and were engaged by German machine-guns firing from an overwatch position further to the east. Victor was severely wounded in the head during the fighting, and was evacuated to the 3rd Casualty Clearance Station at Bapaume, where he died the following day.

Aged 24 at the time of his death, Victor was buried at the Bapaume Australian Cemetery. A small epitaph written by his grieving parents appears on his headstone: “Love and remembrance last forever”.

Five days later Private Charles Gray was killed when large numbers of German troops overran his position near the French village of Lagnicourt. His body was never recovered from the battlefield, and he is among 10,737 Australians killed fighting in France commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

Their names are 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 Victor John Gray and Private Charles William Thomas Gray, who gave their lives for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section