The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3514) Bombardier Frank Herbert Ritchie, 14th Artillery Brigade, 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (3514) Bombardier Frank Herbert Ritchie, 14th Artillery Brigade, First World War.

3514 Bombardier Frank Herbert Ritchie, 14th Artillery Brigade
DOW 8 August 1918
Story delivered 22 September 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Bombardier Frank Herbert Ritchie.

Frank Herbert Ritchie was born in 1895, one of nine children born to George and Mary Ritchie of Moss Vale, New South Wales. He spent most of his formative years at Wamberal on the Central Coast. After attending Erina Public School, Ritchie was a bushman, finding work wherever he could in the surrounding Gosford area.

Ritchie enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915, and after a period of training at Liverpool Military Camp near Sydney, embarked for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 2nd Battalion. They were destined for the fighting in the Dardanelles, but the Gallipoli campaign had ended by the time he arrived. Following the withdrawal, Australian troops returned to Egypt, where they trained near Cairo in preparation for their deployment to the Western Front. As part of a major restructure of the AIF, Ritchie was sent to the newly-formed 54th Battalion before being transferred to the 5th Division Artillery, where he was mustered as a gunner with the 55th Battery in the 14th Field Artillery Brigade.

After months of preparation and training on 18-pounder field guns as part of a six-man gun team, Ritchie finally sailed for France in June 1916 and was involved in all the major actions fought by the Australian 5th Division on the Western Front throughout the rest of that year. The gunners of the 14th Field Artillery Brigade fired in support of the infantry in the costly and unsuccessful assault at Fromelles on 19 July 1916.

They continued to provide essential firepower in support of Australian forays into no man’s land, and bringing down bombardments on the German positions. In December, Ritchie and his gun team moved south to the Somme, where they supported Australian operations between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt over the following winter. They later participated in the advance to the Hindenburg Line and the bitter fighting that occurred at Bullecourt throughout April and May 1917.

In June, Ritchie was wounded in the hand by fragments of German shrapnel, but resumed his duties four days later. A stint of leave in the UK prevented Ritchie from participating in the Third Battle of Ypres, although he had returned to his battery when the Australians made their costly and unsuccessful assault on the village of Passchendaele in mid-October 1917.

When the Germans launched their Spring Offensive in France in March 1918, the Australians were rushed south to help defend the strategically vital city of Amiens. Although held in reserve for most of the fighting, the 5th Division took up positions near the town of Villers-Bretonneux where they ultimately blunted the German attacks as the offensive ground to a halt. In the fighting on 24 April 1918, Ritchie was instrumental in ensuring telephone lines remained open between the gun batteries and brigade headquarters. He repaired broken lines as German artillery pounded the battery’s positions near the town of Corbie. For this, Ritchie was later awarded the Military Medal.

The line remained stable over the following months as British, Canadian and Australian troops prepared for a major counter-attack that would ultimately break through the German lines. The gunners of the 14th Field Artillery Brigade took up positions outside the village of Heilly north of the Somme River, where they engaged German targets and were themselves subjected to German shell-fire.

During one such German bombardment on their gun positions on 6 August 1918, Ritchie was seriously wounded in the head by fragments from a high-explosive shell. He was evacuated to the 5th Casualty Clearing Station at the nearby village of Crouy where he succumbed to his wounds two days later. Aged 22 at the time of his death, Frank Ritchie was buried in the Crouy British Cemetery, where he rests today.

Ritchie’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.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Bombardier Frank Herbert Ritchie, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section