The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3821) Lance Corporal Robert Slessar, 6th Field Company Engineers, AIF, First World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2018.1.1.17
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 17 January 2018
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Mathew Rose, the story for this day was on (3821) Lance Corporal Robert Slessar, 6th Field Company Engineers, AIF, First World War.

Film order form
Speech transcript

3821 Lance Corporal Robert Slessar, 6th Field Company Engineers, AIF
KIA 27 August 1916
Story delivered 17 January 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Robert Slessar.

Known as “Bob”, Robert Slessar was born in 1886 to Robert and Mary Slessar. He grew up in Pakenham East, Victoria, where he attended the local schools. He became a machinery expert and worked locally in the firm of Worship & Slessar. While he was popular in the Pakenham district, he remained unmarried.


Slessar enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in July 1915. Given his expertise in machinery, he was posted to the engineers. He underwent a period of training in Australia before being sent to Egypt.

By March 1916 he had been posted to the 6th Field Company Australian Engineers and was on his way to France to fight on the Western Front. He was quite homesick on occasions, and very grateful for parcels from home. Like many men of the time, he was fond of smoking, writing, “I can assure you we all enjoy a good cigarette … in fact we would rather go without a meal than a smoke”.

In July 1916, some months after arriving in France, the 6th Field Company Engineers entered the front line near the French village of Pozières. On 27 July Slessar was wounded, but he refused to leave the front line and chose to remain on duty. When his unit was relieved, he was promoted to lance corporal.

A month later his field company was back in the front line to the north of Pozières, near Mouquet Farm. Engineers were frequently called on to perform dangerous tasks under fire in order to maintain the front line. On 27 August 1916 Lance Corporal Slessar volunteered to be a member of a working party building a communication trench in the front line under heavy fire. He and the other members of the party were lying on their faces scraping the ground out with entrenching tools. As Slessar was working, he was shot through the head by a bullet and died without saying a word.

Slessar’s companions had to finish digging to ensure adequate cover for the men in the front line. Without time to bury their comrade, they left his body on a bank. It was never recovered.

He was 30 years old.

In Australia, Slessar’s family first heard that Robert was missing just a few weeks after his father had died. It took some time to confirm that Robert Slessar junior had been killed in action. In 1918 Mary Slessar and her remaining children were presented with a framed photograph of their son and brother from the district of Pakenham in gratitude for his service.

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 Lance Corporal Robert Slessar, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3821) Lance Corporal Robert Slessar, 6th Field Company Engineers, AIF, First World War. (video)