The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Lieutenant Charles Merrett, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on Lieutenant Charles Merrett, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, First World War.

Lieutenant Charles Merrett, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps
Accidental death 16 May 1916

Story delivered 6 September 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Charles Merrett.

Charles Merrett was born in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorne in 1894, one of three children of Lieutenant Colonel Charles and Annie Merrett of Brighton, Victoria. He attended Melbourne Grammar Preparatory and Senior School before going on to work for his father at Welch, Perrin & Co. machinery merchants and manufacturing representatives. Charles’s father was the commanding officer of the 5th Light Horse Brigade in Victoria. He followed his father’s example of service in the Militia, gaining a commission as a lieutenant in the 51st Battalion Albert Park Infantry Regiment as Australia went to war in 1914.

Both father and son were excited by the prospects of volunteering for the Australian Imperial Force, but were frustrated that, at the time, neither could serve overseas. Lieutenant Colonel Merrett was the oldest serving light horse officer, and was prevented from sailing for Egypt because of his age, serving instead on the selection committee for officers of the expeditionary forces. Although an officer in the militia, Charles Merrett was too young to apply for a commission in the Australian Imperial Force. Having gained an aero certificate at the Central Flying School at Weeribee in Victoria, Charles sought leave from the Defence Department and travelled to England to gain flying boat experience before applying for a commission in the AIF.

Once in England, Charles Merrett was immediately found suitable for the Royal Naval Air Service, which at the time was entrusted with the air defence of London. Coinciding with his arrival in England in January 1916 were the first Germans zeppelin raids on southern England, dropping bombs on Great Yarmouth, Sherrington, and King’s Lynn in Norfolk. Before techniques were developed for taking off and landing on ships, the Royal Naval Air Service used seaplanes from bases along the English coastlines to counter the German zeppelin threat.

Almost immediately, the Australian Defence Department cancelled Merrett’s leave and gave him a commission in the newly-formed Australian Flying Corps, and instructions to wait in England for the arrival of the AFC squadrons. He was nominally attached to No. 1 Squadron which had been raised at Point Cook near Melbourne earlier that month, although the squadron would later go on to fly in the Sinai-Palestine campaign and was never based in England. Nonetheless, Charles received air flight training with both the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, logging time with an RFC training squadron at Farnborough before proceeding to the Royal Naval Air Service Station at Dover. There he continued his flight training until the AFC squadrons arrived later that year.

On 16 May 1916, Charles Merrett was in the front seat an Avro 504 twin seater with a more experienced instructor when mechanical failure occurred. The instructor had switched off the engine in order to land the aircraft, but found it too short of the runway; he attempted to switch the engine back on again, which it failed to do. Despite the efforts of the instructor to adjust the petrol, the Avro trainer stalled and dived nose first into the ground from a height of about 25 metres. Although the instructor survived, Charles was killed instantly, becoming the second Australian Flying Corps fatality of the First World War. Aged 21 at the time of his death, his body was recovered from the wreckage and buried at St James Cemetery at Dover, where he rests today.

Charles Merrett is listed on the Roll of Honour on your left, along with around more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

His is just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lieutenant Charles Merrett, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section