The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (729) Company Sergeant Major Samuel Wormwell, 27th 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 Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (729) Company Sergeant Major Samuel Wormwell, 27th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

729 Company Sergeant Major Samuel Wormwell, 27th Battalion, AIF
5 November 1916
Story delivered 14 December 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Company Sergeant Major Samuel Wormwell.

Known to friends and family as “Sam”, Samuel Wormwell was born about 1876 in Earby in Yorkshire, England, into the large family of James and Hannah Wormwell. He attended Old Grammar School Earby before going on to start a career as a mason.

At the turn of the century, Samuel Wormwell enlisted for service in the Boer War, attaining the rank of corporal in the Imperial Yeomanry. He served with Brabant’s Horse, a light horse regiment that saw much action against Boer commandos, and with the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles.

Returning from South Africa, Wormwell married Ada Aldersley on 4 March 1903. A son, Arthur William, was born that year, and three years later another son, Fred, was born to the couple.

In 1910, Samuel Wormwell left his wife and children – aged seven and four ¬– in Yorkshire, and travelled to Australia.

After a few months in Australia, Wormwell invited Mary Emma Thornton, who he had known from his home town of Earby, to join him in Australia. Emma was also married, but her husband, a solicitor named Thornton, had a reputation as an abusive and unfaithful man. She had sought assistance from Wormwell while he was in Yorkshire on at least on occasion, and endured a great deal of abuse for the sake of her children. When her husband began a liaison with her own sister, she fled to Australia and joined Wormwell.

Emma joined Samuel in Adelaide before travelling to Murray Bridge, where they lived together as husband and wife in “ideal happiness”.

Samuel’s brother, Jesse, followed him to Australia in 1912, also leaving his wife and daughters behind in Yorkshire, and the brothers established a building business in Murray Bridge. A third Wormwell brother came to Australia about the same time, leaving his wife and children behind and settling near Renmark.

When war broke out, Jesse Wormwell was the first brother to enlist, doing so in September 1914. After joining the 10th Battalion he was among the first group to land at Anzac Cove in the early hours of 25 April 1915. He served throughout the war, returning to Australia in January 1919.

Samuel Wormwell enlisted at Keswick in mid-February 1915 and left Adelaide with the rank of corporal on the troopship Geelong, bound for Egypt.

He joined the 27th Battalion on Gallipoli in September. The battalion had a relatively quiet time there, and departed the peninsula in December, having suffered only light casualties.

Because of his service in Africa, and Australia’s shortage of experienced officers, Wormwell rose through the ranks fairly quickly. He was promoted to company sergeant major in early December 1915, and took up a battlefield commission as warrant officer class two on the 1st of March 1916.

The 27th Battalion entered the front-line trenches for the first time shortly afterwards in early April, and took part in its first major battle at Pozieres the following July. In early August the battalion was responsible for capturing the Windmill – a heavily fortified German position on the outskirts of Pozieres that had remained out of reach for weeks. The battalion suffered more than 400 casualties during its time at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm.

After being relieved and spending some time in a quieter sector of the front in Belgium, the battalion returned to the Somme. The battlefield had by this time been subjected to heavy rain, and the trenches had become a quagmire. In November the battalion participated in two operations to capture German positions near the French village of Flers. Each of these operations managed to capture some of their objectives, but each time the battalion was forced to withdraw.

During the first of these attacks, on 5 November, Samuel Wormwell was hit in the head by a bullet. He left the front line for treatment, but was not wounded badly and was able to return to the front. As he was returning to lines, he was killed outright by a shell. His body was not recovered until the following March, when he was finally buried. He was 40 years old.

His gravesite later became lost, and today Samuel Wormwell is commemorated at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. His name also appears on war memorials in his hometown of Earby, and in Kelbrook, in Yorkshire.

He is also 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 Company Sergeant Major Samuel Wormwell, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section