The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (769) Lance Corporal Charles Edward D'Alton, 8th Australian Infantry 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (769) Lance Corporal Charles Edward D'Alton, 8th Australian Infantry Battalion, First World War.

769 Lance Corporal Charles Edward D'Alton, 8th Australian Infantry Battalion
KIA 6 August 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Charles Edward D’Alton.

Known as “Eddie”, Charles D'Alton was born on 15 January 1890 at Nhill, Victoria. He was third child and second son of St. Eloy and Ann D’Alton.

Charles D’Alton attended state schools at Nhill and Dimboola, where he was known as a good sportsman. After leaving school, he was employed as an assistant in survey parties engaged in marking out the lines for water channels throughout the Wimmera.

Charles enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 27 August 1914, ten days after his older brother, Henry. The brothers would serve together at Gallipoli in the 8th Australian Battalion, which was raised within a fortnight of the start of the war.

Soon after enlistment, Charles was in camp at Broadmeadows. After a few months of rudimentary training, the 8th Australian Battalion, attached to the 2nd Brigade, left Australia, headed for Egypt.

Following a brief stop in Albany, Western Australia, the battalion arrived in Egypt on the 2nd of December. The men trained in Egypt before being transported to Lemnos in early April in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign.

The 8th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April, coming ashore as part of the second wave. After nine days on the peninsula, on the 4th of May, Charles received a gunshot wound to the elbow and was admitted to a convalescent depot in Egypt.

While here, he wrote a letter home detailing his experiences on Gallipoli:

We fought all day Sunday practically without officers, as most of ours had been killed or wounded. We had lost very few men until we made for our firing line, and then things did hum. It was just like a great hailstorm the way the shrapnel fell around us. I wonder how many of us escaped at all. I saw men blown to bits alongside me, and had my clothes spattered with their blood. One bullet went through my cap and another through my sleeve. One man was hit in his left side with the timing cap of a shrapnel. It tore out his side and he died almost at once. One of our officers was hit in the face with a shell and all that remained of his head was a small piece near the ears. Of course he died almost immediately.

In the letter, he wondered what had happened to his brother

I have neither seen nor heard anything of Henry except that he is in the base hospital at Alexandria. He was shot on Monday, April 26, at about 10 a.m., whilst digging a trench. The men near him say that he was shot by a sniper.

What Charles did not know was that Henry had died of his wounds after being evacuated onto the hospital ship Seang Choon and had already been buried at sea.

Charles left hospital on 30 May, re-joining his battalion on Gallipoli on the 13th of June. Within a month he had been promoted to lance corporal and recommended for a commission, and was acting as company clerk.

On 6 August 1915, Lance Corporal Charles D’Alton was killed in action on the Gallipoli Peninsula. One of his mates wrote to tell Charles’s mother what had happened:

It will be some comfort for you to know that Eddie knew no pain, as death was instantaneous, caused by a large shell exploding in our trench, which killed eight men outright and gave several of us a severe shock, from which we have just about recovered. I was standing close to Eddie, and can’t for the life of me understand how any of us are alive.

Charles D’Alton was buried at Shrapnel Valley Cemetery on Gallipoli. He was 25 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 Lance Corporal Charles Edward D'Alton, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section