The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (5342) Private Clarence Sydney Godding, 19th 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (5342) Private Clarence Sydney Godding, 19th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

5342 Private Clarence Sydney Godding, 19th Battalion, AIF
3 May 1917
Story delivered 24 November 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Clarence Godding.

Clarence Sydney Godding was born in 1898 in Grafton, New South Wales, one of three sons born to Charles and Florence Godding. Charles had served in the Boer War, and was for many years warder in Grafton Gaol. Young Clarence attended Grafton Public School and went on to work as a farmhand.

Shortly after he turned 18, Clarence Godding enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Lismore in February 1916, almost exactly a year after his older brother, Fines. The youngest Godding brother, James, was too young to enlist, but would later serve with the 2/6th Field Regiment during the Second World War.

Godding was farewelled at a gathering at Tregeagle Hall in Lismore on 16 February, at which he said he “was going forth to do his duty and hoped that other young men who were present would shortly be following him to the front”. He was posted to the 19th Battalion and, after a period of training in Australia, embarked for overseas service on the troopship Wiltshire on 22 August 1916. He continued training in England, before joining the 19th Battalion on the Western Front in December 1916.

Godding had reached the Western Front as an unusually cold winter was setting in, and remained with his battalion for months as it rotated in and out of the front line.

On 3 May 1917 the 19th Battalion participated in an operation against the German Hindenburg Line, near the French village of Bullecourt. Although advancing a short distance, the men were under constant heavy fire from enemy machine-guns. When withdrawn from the line, the battalion reported more than 350 casualties, more than 115 of those missing men.

Among the missing was Private Clarence Godding. Despite extensive enquiries, the exact nature of his fate could not be determined, and it was not until June the following year that a court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 3 May 1917.

Clarence’s brother, Fines, serving with the 17th Battalion, wrote a number of letters to try to find out what had happened to his brother. Three months after the ruling of the court of enquiry, he too was killed in action attacking the Hindenburg Line, this time near the French village of Bellicourt.

The body of Clarence Godding was never identified, and today he is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux alongside 10,500 Australians killed in France who have no known grave. He was 19 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 Private Clarence Godding, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section