The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (78) Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner, 33rd 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 (78) Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner, 33rd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

78 Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner, 33rd Battalion, AIF
KIA 7 June 1917
Story delivered 15 September 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner.
Alfred Gardner, who was known by his middle name George, was born on 14 September 1897, the third child of James and Lydia Gardner. George grew up on the family farm at Newry Park, near Upper Manilla in northern New South Wales. After attending a local school he worked as a farmer. He was also known by the nickname “Hoe”, possibly a reference to his last name, “Gardner”.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Armidale on 6 February 1916. He joined the 33rd Battalion, 9th Brigade, of the 3rd Australian Division. His battalion was largely drawn from men of the New England region of New South Wales, and became known throughout the war as “New England’s Own”.

George and the 33rd Battalion sailed from Sydney on 4 May 1916, trained in England for four months, then left for France and the war on the Western Front. They first served in the Armentieres sector of northern France, and endured the bitterly cold winter of 1916 to 1917. For months after arriving at the front, they did not take part in any major battles, but instead endured the hardships and monotony of trench warfare, carrying out routine trenchwork and facing intermittent German artillery shelling.

George was clearly a valued and important member of his unit. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Morshead, wrote that George, “distinguished himself by his courage, coolness, determination, leadership and cheerful spirit”. One of his comrades summed up his popularity by simply stating: “By Jove, he was liked.” On 3 June, as his unit moved north to the Ypres sector of Belgium, George was promoted to the rank of lance corporal, a role in which he would lead a Lewis machine-gun team.

Only four days later, on 7 June 1917, George and the 33rd Battalion took part in their first major battle at Messines. This operation was designed to capture strategically important German positions on high ground. The attack began at 3.10 in the morning with the detonation of nearly half a million kilograms of explosives that had been laid in a series of mines dug under the German trenches. The mines had taken Australian, British, New Zealand and Canadian miners nearly two years to dig, and their effect was devastating. The 19 massive exposions inflicted an estimated ten thousand German casualties and demoralised the survivors. In the following attack, Australian forces were able to take their objectives on the German front lines trenches in a matter of hours.

George participated in the initial advance across no man’s land after the detonation of the mines. In the heavy German shell-fire, he was slightly gassed, but proceeded to his objective. In the midst of extremely heavy high explosive artillery and shrapnel fire, George and his Lewis machine-gun team dug into their position and prepared to provide protection from German counter-attacks. As he lay down to take up his position, he said to his comrades, “I can stop them any way they like to come.” Soon afterwards he was struck in the chest by a piece of shrapnel and died almost instantaneously. He was 19 years old.

At the time of George’s death, his older brother Robert, who also served in the First World War, was on a ship on his way to the front. Robert had recently written a letter expressing his wish to catch up with his younger brother in France, not knowing that his brother was already dead.

George’s loss was deeply felt by his mates in his battalion. His company commander wrote of George’s death, “I have lost the best man in my company.” Another of his comrades, Private Ted Starr, wrote to George’s family to tell them how popular George was, how he was always in good spirits, and how happy he would be to come home to Australia and see his beloved family again.

George was buried in the Toronto Avenue Cemetery in Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium, along with 77 other Australians who fell in the battle of Messines. His grieving family wrote for his gravestone: “In strength of youth, he nobly gave his life for freedom and justice.”

Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner 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 Lance Corporal Alfred George Gardner, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section