The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Captain Brian More O’Sullivan, 5th Battalion, 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 Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on Captain Brian More O’Sullivan, 5th Battalion, first World War.

Captain Brian More O’Sullivan, 5th Battalion
DOW 23 August 1918
Story delivered 23 August 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Captain Brian More O’Sullivan.

Brian O’Sullivan was born in 1894, the youngest of three children born to Edward and Fannie O’Sullivan of the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. Brian attended Brighton Grammar School where he topped his class in mathematics and represented the school as a fullback in rugby, as part of the first XI in cricket, and the first four in tennis. He then followed in his father’s footsteps to become a doctor and began studying medicine at Melbourne University where he also spent time in parading in the Melbourne University Rifles. Those who knew Brian remembered him “as he was splendid in physique so he was great in mind and manner”.

Brian enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the end of his second year of medicine in November 1915. He applied for and was granted a commission as a second lieutenant, and sailed for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 5th Battalion in July 1915. Arriving on Gallipoli towards the end of October, he spent the following months occupying the line at Lone Pine until the evacuation in December.

The 5th Battalion then returned to Egypt where it trained in preparation for the fighting on the Western Front. Landing in France in March 1916, the battalion spent several weeks in the relatively quiet “nursery sector” near the town of Armentieres, patrolling no man’s land and carrying out raids on the German trenches. During this time, Brian was seconded to the newly-formed 2nd Light Trench Mortar Battery, where he commanded a sub-battery of six Stokes mortar guns and their crews. In May, just before the battalion moved off to take part in the fighting on the Somme, Brian was hospitalised with a chronic case of mumps and was evacuated to England where he spent several weeks recovering.

He was promoted to captain when he returned to France, rejoining his unit as it was holding positions for the following winter between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt when the fighting on the Somme had ended.

What occurred next was atypical of the Australian experience during the First World War. Perhaps due to an increasing need for medical officers, Brian returned to Australia to complete his studies at Melbourne University. He was discharged from the AIF and resumed his medical degree, however, according to a local newspaper report “his thoughts were ever with the men in France. A recruiting sergeant visited the University [where Brian] again offered to put his studies aside and was accepted”.

Brian reenlisted in October 1917 and embarked in command of a reinforcement group for the 5th Battalion in January 1918. After several months training in the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, he returned to the 5th Battalion in France in June, just as the war was reaching a critical period. The German spring offensive had been halted and the Allies were about to begin their own counter-offensive which would achieve the breakthrough they had sought for the past four years. Now a company commander within the 5th Battalion, Brian lead his men in the highly successful Battle of Amiens near Villers-Bretonneux on 8 August 1918 and participated in the advance that followed. Within the first day, the Australians had advanced over 11 kilometres into German occupied territory.

The advance continued over the following weeks, astride the Somme river, towards the German bastion of Peronne. On 23 August 1918, troops of the 1st Division, of which the 5th Battalion was part of, assaulted German positions in an area known as St Martin’s Wood near the town of Proyart. Leading his men in to battle that day, Brian was severely wounded in the stomach by German machine-gun fire. He was evacuated to a Casualty Clearance Station at nearby Daours where he died five hours later. His remains were buried at the Daours Communal Cemetery Extension.

He was just 23 years old.

A local newspaper article that reported his death admitted that “nothing can, of course, fill the void in the hearts of the parents, but the knowledge that their son did his duty in the great cause will do much to sustain them in the loss that has some to them and their country”.

Brian O’Sullivan’s 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. His photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Brian More O’Sullivan, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section
805 words