The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4753) Private James Crawford 13th 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 Jana Johnson, the story for this day was on (4753) Private James Crawford 13th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

4753 Private James Crawford 13th Battalion, AIF
DOW 3 September 1916

Story delivered 3 September 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private James Crawford.

James Crawford was born in 1870 to William and Elizabeth Crawford of Hillhead, a farming property near the market town of Castlefin in County Donegal, Ireland. He attended Castlefin Number 2 Primary School, and after leaving school worked as a farm labourer. In his early ‘30s, he was working for the Black family on the nearby property of Grahamsland.

Crawford immigrated to Australia in 1910, at the age of 40, and settled at Gilgandra in New South Wales where he found farm work.

In 1915 a local recruitment society started looking for recruits for the AIF. Under the leadership of William Hitchen – known as “Captain Bill” – 20 or so men who had determined to enlist started off to march to Sydney. The march was called a “snowball march”, as the participants hoped that they gather recruits along the way, like a snowball rolling down a hill. At each town on the route the marchers shouted “coo-ee” to attract recruits, and held recruitment meetings. By the time they reached Sydney just over one month later, the numbers had swelled to 263 recruits.

Crawford enlisted on 9 October 1915 at Gilgandra and joined the coo-ee march. Though he was already 45 years old, he had given his age to recruiters as 38.

After training at Liverpool Camp, he was allotted to the 15th reinforcements to the 13th Battalion, embarking from Sydney aboard the transport ship Star of England on the 8th of March 1916. He arrived in Egypt in early April and the following month was sent to the Australian 4th Division Base Depot at Etaples in France. He remained here until mid-August when he was sent forward to join the 13th Battalion, which was reorganising after suffering heavy casualties during the fighting for Pozières. Over the following week, the battalion moved back to the front, and during the night of 28 August, entered the front line near Mouquet Farm.

At 11 pm the following night, the 13th Battalion was involved in an attack. After taking its first objective it held off a German counter-attack but due to a lack of numbers was forced to retire to its starting position. For the remainder of the night the battalion was subjected to heavy German shelling.

The next day was relatively quiet for the depleted 13th Battalion. At 11pm it began to leave the front line, having been relieved by the 48th Battalion. During the early hours of 31 August, as the battalion was leaving the front line, four men were wounded by shell-fire.

Private Crawford received multiple shrapnel wounds to his back and was evacuated to a casualty clearing station, arriving in what was described by a witness as a “considerable exhausted condition”. He had operations to remove the shrapnel and try to patch up his wounds, but his wounds proved mortal, and on 3 September he died. He was laid to rest at Contay British Cemetery.

He was 46 years old.

James Crawford’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 Private James Crawford, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section