The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (7679) Driver Bert Clayton Martyn, 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (7679) Driver Bert Clayton Martyn, 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron, AIF, First World War.

7679 Driver Bert Clayton Martyn, 1st Australian Wireless Signal Squadron, AIF
Died of illness 16 August 1916
Story delivered 20 March 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Driver Bert Clayton Maryn.

Bert Martyn was born in Sydney on 16 September 1891 to William and Jane Martyn. He was baptised the following month at St Saviour’s Anglican Church at Redfern.

His father worked as a carpenter for the Government Printing Office and the family lived at “Braeside” in North Sydney. Martyn grew up in the area and attended North Sydney Public School. Prior to the First World War, he was working as a warehouseman and still living at home.

Martyn enlisted in Sydney on 21 August 1915. After initial training, he was posted to the Army Service Corps, based at Moore Park, where he became a driver.

In December, following a request for specialist wireless equipment and operators, the 1st Australian Pack Wireless Signal Troop was raised. The unit also required a transport element and Martyn was posted to the new unit, based at Broadmeadows in Victoria, on 13 January 1916.

He embarked from Melbourne with his unit aboard the transport ship Saldanha at the beginning of February, bound for Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq. After stops at Colombo and Bombay, he disembarked at Basra in March.


On 25 April, the first anniversary of the Anzac landings, the first of the Australian stations set off from Basra with the 15th Indian Division and marched north on a journey of 230 kilometres to the Euphrates River. A month later, a second station was transported to Nasiriyeh, on the banks of the Euphrates, by boat.

Initially ignored by British signals staff, the work of the two Australian stations soon came to the attention of General Sir Stanley Maude, commander of the allied forces in Mesopotamia. He charged the Australians with intercepting all enemy wireless traffic. A cipher expert was sent from Britain and it was noted that the first enemy code was broken within 23 hours of his arrival. This had a marked impact on the conduct of the remainder of the campaign.

The 1st (ANZAC) Wireless Signal Squadron was soon formed, containing a headquarters unit, two Australian troops and one New Zealand troop. Each troop consisted of four wireless stations, half of which were larger transmitters carried on limbered wagons.

Conditions in Mesopotamia were horrendous. The weather, poor sanitation and pests meant that disease was a more deadly enemy than the Ottomans.

At the start of July, Martyn was hospitalised in Nasiriyeh. He returned to his unit in the middle of the month, but his health had weakened.

On 13 August, he was admitted to hospital in a dangerous condition, suffering with dysentery. His condition continued to deteriorate and he died on 16 August. He was 24 years old.

Martyn was initially laid to rest in Makina Masus Extension New Cemetery, but was later re-interred in the Basra War Cemetery.

Bert Martyn’s 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 Driver Bert Clayton Martyn, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section