The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (720) Frederick Joseph Bayliss, 2nd Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2019.1.1.124
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 4 May 2019
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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, (720) Frederick Joseph Bayliss, 2nd Austrlaian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

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Speech transcript

720 Frederick Joseph Bayliss, 2nd Austrlaian Infantry Battalion, AIF
KIA 6 August 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Frederick Joseph Bayliss.

Frederick Bayliss was born in 1894 in Cassilis, a small village lying between Merriwa and Dunedoo beside the Munmurra River in New South Wales. Part of the large family of Joseph and Hannah Bayliss, his mother died when he was four years old. His father later remarried, and the Bayliss family continued to grow.

Known as “Fred” to friends and family, he found work as a sleeper cutter, a farm worker, and as a station hand at “Riverview” in Dunedoo.

Bayliss was amongst the first to enlist for service in the Australian Imperial Force, doing so on 25 August 1914. He was allotted to the 2nd Battalion, which was raised within a fortnight of the declaration of war, consisting of men recruited from New South Wales.

Just a few months later, on 18 October, Private Bayliss embarked from Sydney on board the troopship Suffolk.

It was first planned that the men would be sent to the United Kingdom, to undertake training before being sent to the Western Front in France and Belgium. But with the Ottoman Empire's entry into the war, plans were changed and they disembarked in Egypt instead. Here they trained in the desert camps outside of Cairo in preparation for an assault on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, the 2nd Battalion came ashore in the second and third waves. At about 3 pm Bayliss was wounded when a bullet glanced off the right side of his head. Bleeding heavily, he was evacuated to Egypt for treatment, and complained of a headache for some time afterwards, but he rejoined his unit barely a week later.
On 6 August, the 1st Brigade, of which the 2nd Battalion was part, led the charge at Lone Pine. The Australians managed to capture the main Ottoman trench line in the first few hours of the fighting. But as the fighting continued for the next three days, the Ottomans brought up reinforcements and launched counterattacks to recapture the ground. Counterattacks intensified, and the Australians brought up two fresh battalions. On 9 August the Ottomans called off any further attempts and by the following day offensive action had stopped, leaving the Australians in control of the position. Despite the Australian victory, the wider August Offensive of which the attack had been a part failed and a stalemate developed around Lone Pine.

Among the dead was the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Scobie, killed during a Turkish counter-attack. In the aftermath of the battle, Private Bayliss was listed as missing.

His mother wrote requesting information about her son, and she hoped that he had been taken prisoner, as no trace of his body had been found. But with no further evidence coming to hand, in 1915 he was presumed dead, killed in action between 6 and 9 August.

The following year, his belongings were sent to his family: a bible, pocket knife, mirror, and chocolate tin.

Believed to be buried somewhere in Lone Pine Cemetery, Frederick Bayliss was 21 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 Frederick Joseph Bayliss, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard, Editor
Military History Section

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