The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2856) Corporal Thomas Mowthorpe, 54th 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 Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (2856) Corporal Thomas Mowthorpe, 54th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2856 Corporal Thomas Mowthorpe, 54th Battalion, AIF
KIA 1 September 1918
Story delivered 9 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Thomas Mowthorpe.

Thomas Mowthorpe was born near Mount Morgan, Queensland, on 16 August 1893, one of seven children of Charles and Esther Mowthorpe. He attended the local school and later worked as a draper. By the time the Great War broke out, he was living in Brewarrina in northern New South Wales.

Mowthorpe enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force in Bathurst in March 1916 and was allotted to reinforcements to the 54th Battalion.

After seven months training in Australia, he departed for Europe. Arriving in England during the terrible winter of 1916, Mowthorpe contracted bronchitis and spent two months recovering in hospital. He then spent another six months training in England before joining the 54th Battalion at the front in August 1917.

Mowthorpe saw his first major engagement in the battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917. This battle was the Anzac component of the much larger allied operation known as the Third Battle of Ypres. At 5.50 am Australian troops advanced behind a heavy artillery barrage, the sound of which was compared to a roaring bushfire. The Australians reached their objectives but endured a series of heavy German counter-attacks. Australian troops held the line, but suffered 5,770 casualties in a single day.

Throughout March and April, the 54th Battalion defended a section of the front near Corbie, east of Amiens and north of Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme region of northern France. Here Mowthorpe endured heavy rain and mud, as well as intermittent attacks by German high explosive and gas shells.

On 17 April, two days after Mowthorpe had been promoted to corporal, the 54th Battalion came under heavy bombardment from high explosive and gas shells. After a number of hours, the men began to succumb to the effects of the mustard gas and had to be evacuated. Mowthorpe was taken to hospital with shell burns and complications associated with the gas, and was eventually transferred to England to recover. After some months recovering from his wounds and undergoing further training, he returned to the front in August 1918.

Here Mowthorpe took part in the allied offensive designed to finally break the stalemate on the Western Front. The 54th Battalion led the Australian assault on the ancient city of Peronne. The Germans were aware of the coming attack and had built formidable defences around the city: an extensive trench system, vast barbed wire entanglements, concentrated machine-gun coverage, and well-hidden road mines.

The operation began before sunrise on 1 September 1918. The 54th Battalion moved to its forward positions, and at 6 am the troops leapt from their trenches into no man’s land. They immediately came under heavy machine-gun fire which did not die down until the German machine-gun nests were captured or destroyed. In many places, violent hand-to-hand fighting occurred.

By 8.20 am the troops had reached the centre of Peronne and began mopping up operations. This task was made difficult by attack from German machine-gun posts placed on top of the buildings, and snipers firing into narrow winding streets.

Though the details of his death remain unclear, Thomas Mowthorpe was killed in the taking of Peronne. He was initially buried with some of his fallen comrades in an isolated gully near Feuillaucourt Road outside Peronne, suggesting that he fell relatively early in the action.

His final resting place is the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, where over 1,500 Commonwealth servicemen are buried or commemorated.

Thomas Mowthorpe was 25 years old.

His 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 Corporal Thomas Mowthorpe, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section