The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (896) Private Edwin Jones, 18th 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (896) Private Edwin Jones, 18th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

896 Private Edwin Jones, 18th Battalion, AIF
KIA 22 August 1915
Story delivered 5 March 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Edwin Jones.

Edwin Sydney Jones was born in 1883, the youngest of three surviving children of Edwin and Elizabeth Jones of the northern Sydney suburb of Manly. After attending Auburn Public School, Edwin worked as an assistant at the Auburn Post Office and sang in the choir at the Auburn Congregational Church. As well as parading part-time with the Citizens Military Forces, most likely the 39th Infantry Regiment at Auburn, Jones had left the Auburn Post Office before the outbreak of war to study medicine at Sydney University.

Jones enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Victoria Barracks in February 1915. After training at Liverpool Military Camp he sailed for Egypt as an original member of the 18th Battalion. After just two weeks in camp at Mena outside Cairo, the battalion embarked for the fighting on Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove on 22 August 1915.

The 18th Battalion was immediately pitched into the bloody fighting at Hill 60 in an effort to capture a low knoll that dominated the British landing area at Suvla. Inexperienced and ill-equipped, the men of the 18th Battalion assaulted the Ottoman positions with fixed bayonets only, and were met with a fusillade of rifle and machine-gun fire. This costly and unsuccessful attempt to capture the summit of Hill 60 resulted in 383 casualties.

Among the dead was Edwin Jones. He was listed as missing in action when the survivors of the 18th Battalion were relieved from the line. Despite the best efforts of the Red Cross to determine whether he had been taken prisoner, no further news of his whereabouts could be determined. In January 1916, a court of inquiry determined he had been killed in the 18th Battalion’s ill-fated assault on Hill 60.

Jones was 32 at the time of his death. His body was never recovered. Today he is listed on the Lone Pine Memorial along with 5,000 other Australian and New Zealand soldiers killed on Gallipoli who have no known grave.

His name also appears on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in 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 Private Edwin Sydney Jones, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section