The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of 2nd Lieutenant Norman Greig, 7th 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 , the story for this day was on 2nd Lieutenant Norman Greig, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2nd Lieutenant Norman Greig, 7th Battalion, AIF
KIA 12 July 1915

Story delivered 14 November 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Norman James Thomas Greig.

Norman Greig was born in 1891, the eldest of three children of David and Jane Greig of Penshurst in south-west Victoria. Known as “Norm” to family and friends, Greig attended Wesley College in Melbourne, where he was actively involved in senior cadets. Going on to study at Melbourne University, Greig proved to be a first-class tennis and hockey player. A member of the university team, he also represented Victoria in inter-colonial matches. After graduating in 1912, he taught science and mathematics at Scotch College in Melbourne and held a commission in the 64th Infantry (City of Melbourne) Regiment.

Greig was granted a commission in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1915. After a few weeks training at Broadmeadows camp on the outskirts of Melbourne, he sailed for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 7th Battalion. By the time he arrived, Australian and New Zealand troops had already landed on Gallipoli as part of a wider effort to force a passage through the Dardanelles and knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war.

Greig joined the 7th Battalion on Gallipoli about an hour before the battalion made its ill-fated assault on Kirithia at Cape Helles on 8 May 1915. Several days later the 7th Battalion arrived at Anzac Cove, where it was held in reserve until being sent to man Steele’s Post in early July. The battalion’s arrival at Steele’s Post coincided with diversionary raids being made in an effort keep the Turks from sending reinforcements to other sectors.

On 12 July 1915, Norm volunteered to lead a small group of bombers to a Turkish-occupied mine crater near German Officers’ Trench. Despite being outnumbered the raiding party engaged the enemy with grenades,
suffering heavy casualties in the resulting melee. When Greig’s leg was broken from the explosion of a Turkish grenade, he ordered the survivors to leave. He was last seen covering their withdrawal, emptying his revolver into the Turks defending the trench. He never returned and was listed as missing in action.

Norman Greig was subsequently mentioned in corps orders for “covering the retreat of his party, which was safely effected through his gallant action”. Despite efforts by his anxious parents to determine whether their son was dead or had been taken alive as a prisoner of war, neither they nor the authorities could determine what had happened to him. Without any further news, a court of inquiry held at Rouen in France in September 1917 ruled that Greig had been killed in action on 12 July 1915.

It was not until the Australian official historian, Charles Bean, returned to Gallipoli in 1919 that Greig’s parents learned what had happened to their son. Guided by Zeki Bey, a Turkish officer who had been present during the assault on German Officers’ Trench, Bean inquired about a “handsome, fair-headed, square shouldered boy and most gallant officer” who had been killed in the fighting that day. Zeki Bey told Bean that the Australian officer had refused to surrender, and died in the mine crater as a result of his leg wound.

Charles Bean confirmed the officer was Norman Greig.

Aged 24 at the time of his death, Greig was buried behind Turkish lines. The location of his final resting place is unknown today, and he is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, alongside 5,000 Australian and New Zealand troops who died on Gallipoli and have no known grave.
Just weeks after the Greig family received news that their son had been killed in the fighting on Gallipoli, they received news that his younger brother, Lance Corporal Gordon Greig, had died while fighting near Zonnebeke in Belgium. Devastated by the loss of their two sons, David
and Jane Greig inserted the following epitaph in the Melbourne newspaper: “Two Anzac brothers now reunited. Our brave boys”.

Norman Greig’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 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 Lieutenant Norman James Thomas Greig, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section