The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX51043) Private William Olaf Gaffney, 8 Division Australian Army Service Corps, Second 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 (NX51043) Private William Olaf Gaffney, 8 Division Australian Army Service Corps, Second World War.

NX51043 Private William Olaf Gaffney, 8 Division Australian Army Service Corps
Illness 21 November 1943


Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Olaf Gaffney.

William Olaf Gaffney was born on 13 October 1914, in Drummoyne, Sydney, the eldest of four boys born to William and Kjersti Gaffney. Known as “Bill” to his family and friends, Gaffney worked as a fitter labourer, and lived at Ryde, in Sydney. At over 6 foot 6 tall, Gaffney used to joke to his mother that she had not dusted the tops of doors and high mantle pieces. He was remembered as a wonderful, kind, and gentle man.

Gaffney enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force at Sydney in June 1940 and began training with the 9th Battalion at Liverpool. In July, he transferred to the 8th Division Australian Army Service Corps. Army Service Corps units played a vital role by providing supply and logistical support to the Australian war effort.

After a brief period of training at Dubbo, and completing a course in mechanical fitting, in July 1941 Gaffney sailed from Sydney to Singapore where he would serve in a supporting role for the Australian 8th Division. At this time, Allied forces were building up defences and preparations for likely Japanese aggression.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Japanese forces rapidly advanced through south-east Asia. Throughout January 1942 they pushed south through the Malay Peninsula, and in February attacked and captured Singapore. The fall of Singapore was a disastrous blow to the Allied war effort. Gaffney was one of the 45,000 Australian and British troops captured in the fall of Singapore, and he became a prisoner of war.

After a brief period in the Japanese camp at Changi on Singapore, Gaffney became one of a large number of prisoners of war drafted into a workforce designated to construct the infamous Burma–Thailand railway.

The railway was a 424-kilometre-long line designed to improve supply to Japanese forces in Burma, and was built by Dutch, American, British and Commonwealth soldiers, as well as thousands of people from local Thai and Burmese populations.

Many of the prisoners working on the Burma-Thailand Railway were malnourished, and diseases such as malaria, beriberi, cholera, and dysentery were rife.

Gaffney was one of the nearly 13,000 prisoners of war to die during the construction of the Thai-Burma Railway. He died of dysentery on 21 November 1943. He was 29 years old.
He is buried in the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Myanmar, where over 3,500 soldiers of the Second World War now lie.

His family did not receive word of his death until after the war ended in 1945. His grieving family left the following inscription on his grave: “Duty well done … Always remembered by father, mother and brothers”.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second 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 William Olaf Gaffney, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section