The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1404) Corporal Stanley Patron Pike, 13th 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 Denis Stockman, the story for this day was on (1404) Corporal Stanley Patron Pike, 13th Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War.

1404 Corporal Stanley Patron Pike, 13th Australian Machine Gun Company
DOW 26 September 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Stanley Patron Pike.

Stanley Pike was born in 1894 to William and Eliza Pike of Broken Hill. His father was a coachman, employed to take managers to and from the Proprietary mine. Stanley attended the North Broken Hill Public School. In 1900 Stanley’s parents divorced due to infidelity by his mother, and his father took custody. While both his parents remarried shortly afterwards, Elizabeth’s new husband continued threatening behaviour towards Pike’s father for some time.

Stanley Pike went to work at the Broken Hill Proprietary Mine when he was about 14 years old. Six years later war broke out, and within weeks he enlisted to serve in the Australian Imperial Force. Pike underwent a period of training in Australia before leaving for active service overseas with reinforcements to the 10th Battalion in February 1915.

Pike’s health suffered during his time on the peninsula and he was evacuated a number of times. He later told people that he had been on the troopship Southland when it was torpedoed in the Mediterranean, clinging to a piece of wood in the sea for six hours before rescue. After this, Pike returned to the peninsula at least twice before the evacuation in December 1915.

Shortly after his return to Egypt, Private Pike was hospitalised with acute alcoholism. He seems to have recovered, and was transferred to the 50th Battalion with the reorganisation of the AIF. A few days later he was transferred to the 13th Machine Gun Company. After further training in the desert, Pike was sent to France to fight on the Western Front. For the next 12 months he remained with his company, with few problems.

In fact, Pike proved an able soldier, and in April 1917 he was promoted to lance corporal, and a month later to corporal. In September 1917 the 13th Machine Gun Company entered gun positions in support of an Australian attack on Polygon Wood near Ypres. Sergeant Pike was probably on a crew of one of the eight guns that went forward in close support to the attacking battalions. At some point during the attack, he was wounded and evacuated to a nearby casualty clearing station where he died. Today he is buried Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

William Pike put a memorial notice in the local newspaper on the first anniversary of his only son’s death. It read:

Sleep on, heroic soul
A braver heart than thine
Ne’er beat within the human breast;
Sleep on and take thy rest.

Stanley Pike was 23 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 Corporal Stanley Patron Pike, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section