The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (47) 2/Lieutenant Frederick Birks, 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (47) 2/Lieutenant Frederick Birks, 6th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

47 2/Lieutenant Frederick Birks, 6th Battalion, AIF
KIA 21 September 1917
Photograph: P01113.001

Story delivered 20 September 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Second Lieutenant Frederick Birks.

Frederick Birks was born on 16 August 1894 in Flintshire, Wales, to Samuel and Mary Birks. Frederick’s father died when he was five years old, but little is known of how the family managed without him. Frederick came to Australia in 1913, arriving at the age of 18. He probably first arrived at Fremantle, but went straight on to South Australia, where he spent some time boarding with a Mrs. Cornelius in Norwood, Adelaide. He also lived in Largs Bay, near Port Adelaide, where he struck up a friendship with Miss Suzy Gelven. He would undertake a brief correspondence with her, but they lost track during the war.

On the outbreak of war, Birks was living and working with Herbert Jones in Melbourne. Jones later moved to Tasmania, but Birks enlisted for service in the Australian Imperial Force as soon as it was possible to do so, leaving some of his belongings with Jones for safekeeping.

Birks was posted to the 2nd Field Ambulance and left Australia for active service overseas on 19 October 1914. He served as a stretcher bearer on Gallipoli, and was later recommended for the military medal for “carrying wounded single handedly under shell and rifle fire from … positions where it was impossible to take stretchers at Anzac on [the] 25th April 1916”, and doing much the same at Cape Helles the following month.

He was wounded in June 1915, but not badly enough to keep him from his work for more than a day. Following the evacuation from Gallipoli, he was sent to France to fight on the Western Front, arriving at the end of March 1916.

In April Birks was promoted to lance corporal, and in late July and early August 1916 he saw action near the French village of Pozières. He was again recommended for an award for repeatedly leading “his squad of stretcher bearers through Pozières Wood and the village from the front line, many of the regimental stretcher bearers being out of action”, all of this while under heavy shell-fire. This time he was awarded the Military Medal.

Birks continued with the 2nd Field Ambulance throughout the bitterly cold winter of 1916 and 1917. In March 1917 he was selected for officer training. He was commissioned as second lieutenant and transferred to the 6th Battalion in May.

Four months later the 6th Battalion was involved in the Battle of Menin Road. At 10.30pm on 19 September, the men filed out into position on tapes laid in no man’s land. At 5.40 the following morning the battalion advanced after a sudden artillery barrage. Second Lieutenant Birks and Lance Corporal King met the first enemy resistance, rushing a German strong point that was holding up the battalion’s advance. Lance Corporal King was wounded by a bomb, but Birks continued. He killed the rest of the Germans in the strong point and captured a machine-gun. Still not finished, he organised a small party of men and took them to attack another strong point, killing and capturing about 25 Germans. Once his battalion had reached their objective, he worked tirelessly to organise parties of men to consolidate their gains and make the new position ready to defend. It was later recorded that “by his wonderful coolness and personal bravery, Second Lieutenant Birks kept his men in splendid spirits throughout”.

Later, as Birks was at his post, he and his men came under an artillery barrage. Some of his men were buried by the blast of a shell. As Birks was attempting to get them out, another shell landed nearby, killing him. He was later buried nearby.

Birks’ courage and gallantry on 20 September did not go unnoticed. He was commended for the British Army’s highest honour, the Victoria Cross, which was awarded to him posthumously.

Today Frederick Birks lies in the Perth Cemetery in Belgium, under the words “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. He was 23 years old.

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 Second Lieutenant Frederick Birks, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Unit