The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6086) Private Valentine Montgomery Starkey, 4th Infantry 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 Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (6086) Private Valentine Montgomery Starkey, 4th Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

6086 Private Valentine Montgomery Starkey, 4th Infantry Battalion, AIF
KIA 8 May 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Valentine Montgomery Starkey.

Valentine Starkey was born near Mangrove Creek, north of the Hawksbury River in New South Wales, on 14 March 1894, the son of Joseph and Emma Starkey. It is not known if Starkey attended school, but at the time of his enlistment he signed his name with an X. He worked as a surveyor’s chainman, likely with his older brother Reuben, who was a surveyor’s cook.

He was described as a “Brave lad” who had a strong desire to sign up and fight for Australia after hearing of German actions on the Western Front.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 28 January 1916 and began training with the reinforcements of the 4th Infantry Battalion. His older brother Reuben served in the 1st Division Machine Gun Company, and the two brothers would spend much of the war serving on the same sectors of the Western Front.

Starkey sailed from Sydney aboard the transport ship Wiltshire to England in August 1916, and after a brief period of training transferred to France where he joined his unit for the first time in January 1917. He joined his unit while they were near the Somme River during one of the coldest winters in living memory.

Starkey spent the next few months experiencing the hardships and horrors of trench warfare on the Western Front, manning front line trenches, and working and resting behind the lines. The men lived in terrible conditions dominated by mud, German artillery shelling, and rifle fire.

On the night of 7 May 1917, Starkey and the 4th Battalion were in the trenches near Bullecourt, north of the Somme, when they came under a sustained heavy German high explosive artillery bombardment. The attack lasted throughout the night and into the early hours of the next morning, until the unit was relieved and withdrawn to an area known as the Sunken Road, near Noreuil.

Starkey was killed in action during this period, likely by German artillery fire. He was 23 years old, and at the time of his death his older brother was less than five kilometres away.
He was buried near Noreuil, but in the chaos of the war his grave was lost, and he now has no known grave.

His name appears on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France, which lists the names of over 10,700 Australians of the Great War who final resting place is not known.
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 Valentine Montgomery Starkey, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section