The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4506) Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Littlefair, 3rd Battalion, AIF, 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 (4506) Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Littlefair, 3rd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

4506 Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Littlefair, 3rd Battalion, AIF
KIA 15 April 1918

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Littlefair, who was killed while fighting on the Western Front during the First World War.

Joseph Littlefair was born in December 1890 in the Newcastle suburb of Merewether, one of five children born to Joseph and Sarah Littlefair. Known to friends and family as “Harry”, he worked as a coal miner.

Harry joined the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force on 30 August 1915, at nearby Maitland. Most of the 3rd Battalion were men recruited from his home state of New South Wales. He sailed for Egypt from Sydney on the transport Osterley in January 1916. After completing further training at the Australian army camp in Egypt, Harry joined his unit in France in June 1916.

In June and early July, Harry and the 3rd Battalion undertook training with bayonets and other weapons. Although they were in a reserve position, the men of the battalion came under German shell-fire, and experienced a number of gas alerts that required the men to don their gas masks.

In July 1916, the 3rd Battalion marched to the River Somme, where their objective was to take the high ground of the village of Pozières. British commanders believed that the high ground near this village was the key to the entire Somme sector of the Western Front. On 22 July, the day before the advance on Pozières, the men of the 3rd Battalion began to assemble in the assembly trenches. While moving into this forward position, Harry was shot in the chest and badly wounded.

He spent three weeks at a field hospital in Camiers on the coast of France, before being evacuated to hospital in England in August. He recuperated in England for nearly a year. Finally, in July 1917, Harry was able to rejoin his battalion in France. He was promoted to lance corporal in the field in September.

The 3rd Battalion was now stationed at Kemmel in western Belgium, not far from the French border. As the cold weather began to set in, the troops continued training to maintain discipline. Sport was one way to maintain fitness and comradery. In December, a team made up of the men of the 3rd Battalion played football against a team made up of the officers. It was a resounding victory for the rank and file soldiers, who beat the officers 11-nil.

The winter was cold and wet. In early January, Harry was admitted to hospital suffering from septic heel, brought on by the constant damp. He recovered quickly and returned to his battalion on 22 January. From then until the end of the month, he and the other men of his battalion were at the front line, about ten kilometres south of the Belgian town of Ypres. After they were relieved, Harry had a fortnight’s leave in England.

When he returned to his unit on 2 April, winter was over and the Germans had begun a major attack that became known as the German Spring Offensive. The 3rd Battalion travelled by train from the French city of Amiens to the northern village of Strazeele. This village was a strategic point in the defence against the German offensive, which centred on the River Lys in Flanders. On 14 April, Australians in the trenches at Strazeele could see the Germans assembling in preparation for an attack. At 6:40 in the morning, the Germans began a heavy bombardment of the British and Commonwealth lines and waves of German infantry began advancing. Over the next 48 hours, the Australian troops were successful in repelling the attack on the village of Strazeele.

During the fighting on 15 April, 1918, Harry was hit by machine-gun fire and killed. He was 27 years old.

Due to the nature of the fighting, his body was buried where he fell, and today the location of his grave is unknown. His name is inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France, one of nearly 11,000 Australian soldiers commemorated there.

Back home, his grieving parents had the following poem printed in a Newcastle newspaper:

A devoted son, a loving brother,
One of the best that God could send;
His heart true, his spirit brave,
His resting place a soldier’s grave.

Harry had left his miner’s lamp at the Neath Hotel in the Hunter Valley. It still sits behind the bar there, and every year on Anzac Day it is lighted in his honour.

Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Littlefair 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 Joseph Henry Littlefair, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section