The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (9393) Driver Rupert John Fisher, 4th Field Artillery Brigade, 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 (9393) Driver Rupert John Fisher, 4th Field Artillery Brigade, First World War.

9393 Driver Rupert John Fisher, 4th Field Artillery Brigade
KIA 2 May 1917, aged 26
Story delivered 2 January 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Rupert John Fisher.

Rupert Fisher was born around 1890 to William and Emma Fisher of Gunning, New South Wales. He attended the local public school before going on to work as a labourer in the local district.

Fisher enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915. After a period of training in Australia, he left for active service overseas with the 5th Field Artillery Brigade in November 1915. Shortly after Fisher’s arrival in Egypt, the AIF underwent a period of expansion and training. As part of this process, Gunner Fisher transferred to the 4th Field Artillery Brigade, and travelled to France to fight on the Western Front.

Now reassigned the rank of driver, Fisher proved popular with his mates in the artillery, who knew him as “Jack”. He was an able driver, and rose to the “coveted position of head driver in the gun team”. One of his best mates was Cecil Levy, who lived close to Gunning and had enlisted at the same time as Fisher. Levy later wrote that Fisher was “respected by all with whom he came in contact, and his comrades who worked with him loved him as a brother. He was always ready to give a helping hand.”

In early May 1917, Driver Fisher’s field artillery brigade prepared to support an Australian attack on the French village of Bullecourt. The day before the attack was launched, Fisher was working with his team of
horses preparing for the operation, when a German artillery shell struck the team and he was seriously wounded. He was evacuated to a nearby casualty clearing station, but died of his wounds shortly afterwards.

A chaplain of the Australian forces wrote to Fisher’s mother to say:
I know no one can feel his loss as his mother does, and I know your grief is great. Your son was thought a lot of by his comrades, and the officers spoke of him as being one of the best men in the whole battery, and they were all sincere. All liked him, and he endeared himself to all.

The Fisher family ensured their son was remembered in Gunning through a special memorial on the gates to the Anglican church. The gates were unveiled during a ceremony in September 1918, after which a memorial tablet was unveiled and consecrated inside the church.

Today Rupert Fisher is buried in Grevillers British Cemetery in France. He was 26 years old.

His 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 Private Rupert John Fisher, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section