The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2169) Sergeant George Leslie Giles, 6th 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (2169) Sergeant George Leslie Giles, 6th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2169 Sergeant George Leslie Giles, 6th Battalion, AIF DOW 14 July 1915
Story delivered 20 July 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant George Leslie Giles.

George Giles was born in 1895 to Edward and Mary Giles in Albert Park, Victoria. Raised in a Roman Catholic household in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, he served in his school’s cadets as a second lieutenant and after leaving school undertook an apprenticeship as an iron moulder.

Keen to aid the Australian war effort, Giles was one of the first to volunteer to serve, enlisting in September 1914. After initial training in Melbourne, he embarked on the transport ship Themistocles in December. Arriving in Egypt, he trained in the desert with other Australian troops in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign.

In May 1915, Giles joined the 6th Australian Infantry Battalion on Gallipoli. The 6th Battalion was made up of recruits from George’s home state of Victoria. On the day of the battalion’s arrival at Anzac Cove, Turkish troops mounted a major attack. Australian and New Zealand troops successfully repulsed this offensive, but for Giles and the other men of the 6th Battalion, it served as a stark introduction to the realities of the war.

Giles and his brigade took up a reserve position. From there, he and his comrades helped with roadmaking duties and relieving the front lines, which had encountered a stiff resistance from Turkish defenders. During May and June he experienced both the terror and idleness of trench warfare, enduring lengthy quiet periods while occasionally coming under heavy artillery bombardment and sniper fire.

In early July, Giles and his battalion were sent to the front lines to relieve the war-weary 8th Infantry Battalion. On several occasions, Turkish artillery damaged the Australian trenches, and many nights were spent repairing them. On the afternoon of 13 July 1915, the Turkish artillery
began a heavy barrage of Giles’s section of the trenches. During the shelling, he was badly wounded and evacuated to the hospital ship Gascon.
In the early hours of the next morning, Sergeant George Giles died of his wounds, and was buried at sea. He was 20 years old.
His grieving brother named his son in honour of George, and it has since become a family tradition to honour his service in this way.

Today he is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial in Turkey, along with nearly 5,000 other Australians and New Zealanders who were killed in the Gallipoli campaign. Nearly 1,000 of those commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial were Australians buried at sea like Giles.

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 Sergeant George Leslie Giles, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers Historian, Military History Section