The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of(559) Trooper Frederick Bird, 4th Light Horse Regiment, 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 (559) Trooper Frederick Bird, 4th Light Horse Regiment, AIF, First World War.

559 Trooper Frederick Bird, 4th Light Horse Regiment, AIF
DOW 6 August 1915

Story delivered 6 August 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Trooper Frederick Arthur Bird.

Frederick Bird was born in 1897, one of six children of James and Ada Bird of Yarram in the Gippsland region in Victoria. Known as “Fred” to his family and friends, he attended Yarram State School before joining his father in grazing sheep on family holdings at Alberton East and nearby Woranga.

Fred Bird enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Yarram in September 1914, and after several weeks training at Broadmeadows Camp on the outskirts of Melbourne, sailed for Egypt as an original member of the 4th Light Horse Regiment. As the infantry encamped in Egypt embarked for the fighting in the Dardanelles in early April the following year, men of the light horse regiments remained in camp and trained for future offensive action.

As Australian and New Zealand casualties on Gallipoli continued to rise at an alarming rate, the men of the 4th Light Horse Regiment were sent in as dismounted infantry reinforcements to help defend the Anzac positions. After landing on Gallipoli in late May, the regiment was broken up to provide squadrons of infantry reinforcements.

It was not until 11 June that the 4th Light Horse Regiment was reconstituted as a unit, after which they were used to defend positions near Ryrie’s Post on the southern end of Bolton’s Ridge. Here, the men of the 4th Light Horse Regiment were involved in a number of “demonstrations” against the Ottoman positions in preparation for a major offensive being planned for early August.

One of those demonstrations at Ryrie’s Post occurred on the night of 6 August 1915, with the regiment intended to draw Ottoman reserves and fire away from nearby Lone Pine. During the engagement, Bird was seriously wounded in the head by shrapnel. He was carried by stretcher bearers to a nearby dressing station, but succumbed to his wounds. Aged 18 at the time of his death, Fred Bird was buried at the nearby Beach Cemetery at Anzac, where he rests today. His grieving parents requested that one word appear on his headstone as an epitaph: “Peace”.

A year later, a member of his family included the following epigraph in the local newspaper in his memory:

Men of Anzac, not in vain
All the battle sweat and pain,
Of the brave young lives that fell
Gash and torn by shot and shell.

Frederick Bird’s 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 Trooper Frederick Arthur Bird, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section