The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (797) Private Richard Warne MM, 31st 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (797) Private Richard Warne MM, 31st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

797 Private Richard Warne MM, 31st Battalion, AIF
Accidentally killed 25 August 1919
Story delivered 1 August 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Richard Warne who served in the First World War.

Richard Warne was born in 1898 to Richard and Clara Warne, a farming family with a property on the edge of the small village of Owanyilla, just south of Maryborough in Queensland. He was educated at the local school and worked on the family farm until March 1916, when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.

Initially attached to the 41st Battalion, Private Warne embarked for England in May 1916. Following months of training, in September he was transferred to the 31st Battalion and sent to the Western Front in France.

In February 1917 Warne was supplying rations to the front line when a shell burst shattered a nearby urn, drenching his feet in boiling water. He was sent to England for treatment, and spent eight weeks at Norfolk War Hospital. After his release he remained in England to help train troops before returning to France in September. A few months later he was sentenced to one day’s detention for taking four pounds (1.8 kilos) of apples to give to his mates.

On the night of 28 July 1918, during an attack on enemy trenches at Morlancourt, Warne volunteered for duty as a stretcher-bearer. Under heavy machine-gun and shell-fire, he carried wounded men to safety, working without food or rest through the night and into the following day, until all of the wounded had been brought in. For his actions he received a Military Medal.

A few months later Warne was part of a three-man Lewis gun team that engaged a German battery holding up the battalion. For his help in putting the German guns out of action, Warne was recommended for a Bar to his Military Medal. While this was not awarded, he was Mentioned in Despatches.

When the war ended on 11 November 1918 Warne and his unit returned to England to enjoy a well-earned rest and await transport home. Embarking in July 1919, Warne arrived in Melbourne the following month. After a long train journey to Brisbane, on the evening of 24 August Warne and his friend Private George Black set off on another train to Rockhampton.
As they neared home, Warne learned that the train would not stop at Owanyilla. Unwilling to face the crowds at the busier Maryborough station, and preferring to go straight home, he planned to jump off at the platform when the train slowed. In the early hours before dawn, as the train reached the tiny village station, Warne woke Black and said goodbye, threw his kit bag off the train and jumped after it into the dark, his overcoat slung over his right arm.

At about 7 am, a station guard picked up a kit bag a few feet from the platform. He took it to the woman responsible for keeping the railway gates. Curious, she followed along the tracks towards Maryborough, and saw more luggage. A little further on was the body of a man, lying in a rock cutting by the track. The woman sent her sister to the nearest neighbour for help; this turned out to be Richard Warne senior, who lived less than a mile from the station.

Mr Warne followed the woman to the railway track and found his son bloodied and broken, unconscious but still breathing. There was blood on his face, and his right leg was almost severed above the knee.

Richard’s mother and younger sister soon arrived at the scene, but Warne never regained consciousness. An ambulance arrived after an hour, and Warne’s father was with him as he died on the way to hospital. He was 21 years old.

The local community was shocked by the death; Private Warne had survived the Western Front only to be killed within sight of home. His funeral was well attended, and the people of the district raised funds to erect a memorial over his grave at Maryborough Cemetery.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among some 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 Private Richard Warne, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Emma Campbell
Researcher, Military History Section