The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Major General William Holmes CM DSO VD, 4th Australian Division, Australian Army. First World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2017.1.183
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 02 July 2017
Access Open
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Major General William Holmes CM DSO VD, 4th Australian Division, Australian Army. First World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

Major General William Holmes CM DSO VD, 4th Australian Division, Australian Army
KIA 2 July 1917
Photograph: 133440, ART00195, A05789.

Story delivered 2 July 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Major General William Holmes.

William Holmes was born in Sydney on 12 September 1862, the son of Captain William Holmes and his Tasmanian-born wife Jane. Captain Holmes was chief clerk at Headquarters, New South Wales Military Forces, who had come to Australia in 1845 as a private in the 11th Foot. His wife’s father was also in the 11th Foot.

Young William lived in Victoria Barracks and attended Paddington Public School. Surrounded by military culture, it seemed inevitable that he would become a soldier. He joined the 1st Infantry Regiment of New South Wales Military Forces as a bugler in 1872, at the age of ten.

Holmes’s father, however, believed that the public service offered greater opportunities. After working at the Sydney Mint, Holmes joined the accounts branch of the Department of Public Works as a clerk. By the age of 32 he was secretary of the New South Wales Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage.

On 24 August 1887 he married Susan Ellen Green, whose family also lived in Victoria Barracks. The couple went on to have a son and a daughter.

In October 1899 Holmes volunteered for active service in the Boer War. Although he was a captain at the time, he accepted a demotion to lieutenant in order to serve overseas.

On arrival in South Africa his unit was issued with horses and joined the Australian (Mounted Infantry) Regiment. Promoted to captain, Holmes saw action at Rensburg, Houtnek, the Zand River, Kroonstad, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. In June 1900 he was wounded at Diamond Hill. Invalided home, he led returned soldiers in the Federation procession in Sydney in January 1901 and received a shower of praise, gaining a “reputation for personal bravery, ability and capacity for command”. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Colonial Auxiliary Forces’ Officers Decoration, promoted brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, and mentioned in dispatches.

When war was declared in 1914, Holmes was chosen to command the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, a volunteer force specially raised in the first week of the war to capture Rabaul and occupy the German territories to Australia’s immediate north. This achieved, he was appointed to command the 5th Brigade within the Australian Imperial Force, which he took first to Gallipoli, where it was involved in fighting at the Nek, and then to France, where it took part in the bitter fighting at Pozières and Flers on the Somme.

A newspaper article around this time described Holmes: “His moustache is symbolical of him. It is one of these faultless moustaches exactly suited to his face, beautifully curled, glossy, accurate … Neatness and precision are the keynotes of his character.”

In January 1917 Holmes was promoted to major general and made commander of the 4th Australian Division. After commanding the division through the disastrous battle of Bullecourt, he saw success at Messines two months later. Shortly afterwards, on 2 July, he was escorting the New South Wales Premier, William Holman, near the battlefield when a stray German shell burst alongside and fatally wounded him.

He died on the way to a field hospital and was buried in Les Trois Arbres British cemetery near Armentières. At the age of 55, he had been appointed CMG, awarded the Russian Order of St Anne, and been mentioned in despatches four times. Holmes was the highest-ranking Australian soldier to die on the Western Front.

Official war historian Charles Bean expressed his admiration for Holmes’s “fine moral qualities, transparent sincerity, energy and great courage”, describing him as “one of Australia’s most eminent citizen soldiers”.

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 Major General William Holmes, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard Editor, Australian War Memorial

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