The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (281) Sergeant Donald Stephen Shubert Bristol, 1st Australian Machine Gun Company, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (281) Sergeant Donald Stephen Shubert Bristol, 1st Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War.

281 Sergeant Donald Stephen Shubert Bristol, 1st Australian Machine Gun Company
DOW 23 August 1918

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant Donald Stephen Shubert Bristol.

Donald Bristol, usually known as “Shubert,” was born in Karimba, Victoria, around 1892, one of 11 children born to Charles and Eliza Ann Bristol. He grew up in the Katunga district and became a carpenter.

Shubert Bristol enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in early 1916 and was posted to the 2nd Machine Gun Company. He left Australia for active service overseas in May 1916 on board the troopship Port Lincoln. First sent to Egypt where he underwent a further period of training, he arrived in France in November 1916.

Bristol arrived on the Western Front as one of the coldest winters on record was beginning. He spent some of the winter sick in hospital, and was not fit to return to duty until March 1917. From this point on he was given regular promotion and undertook several specialist training courses. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Jack Horan, later wrote that Shubert was “with my section for nearly two years, and by his sterling qualities as a man and soldier he commanded respect from all who came in contact with him.”

On 18 August 1918 Shubert Bristol was promoted to sergeant. Shortly afterwards his machine-gun company entered the front line near Peronne Road, joining the advance that had been pushing the Germans back for several weeks.

In the early hours of 23 August, Bristol was leading a gun team forward when an artillery shell landed nearby. He was hit on the head by a shell fragment and knocked out immediately. Some of his mates carried him to a nearby dressing station, but he died about half an hour after arrival.

Jack Horan wrote to Bristol’s parents, saying “I am sure it will be a relief to you know that he suffered no pain, and was buried decently, and a cross put on his grave … he had only held his sergeant’s stripes a little time, but had God spared him I am sure he would have risen to the highest rung on the ladder.”

Today Shubert Bristol lies in Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières under the epitaph “One of the best: a soldier and a man. Thy will be done.” He was 25 years old.
His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 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 Donald Stephen Shubert Bristol, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section