The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4570) Private Alban Wallace Munt, 4th Australian 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (4570) Private Alban Wallace Munt, 4th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

4570 Private Alban Wallace Munt, 4th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
DOW 6 November 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Alban Wallace Munt.

Alban Munt was born in June 1894 in the Sydney suburb of Carlingford, the son of James and Rosina Munt. Known as “Alby” to his family and friends, he attended Dundas Public School, and served in the cadets for four years. After leaving school, he worked as a labourer on his parents’ property.

Munt joined the Australian Imperial Force in September 1915, listing his age as 21 years old. In fact, he was only 18. After preliminary training in Australia, Munt embarked on the transport ship Wandilla in February 1916. After a stopover of about three weeks in Egypt, Munt sailed for France, arriving in Marseilles at the beginning of April. He joined the 4th Australian Infantry Battalion at Etaples at the end of July 1916.

In mid-August, Munt and the men of the 4th Battalion marched to the French village of Pozieres, which had been taken by Australian troops only a few weeks earlier. Their objective now was the high ground around the abandoned farmhouse called Mouquet Farm. The German defence of Mouquet Farm was fierce, and in the three days that the 4th Battalion was at the front line there, it suffered nearly three hundred casualties, including 41 killed.

At the end of August, the 4th Battalion moved north away from the Somme and into the calmer Ypres sector. Here the men occupied trenches in which the mud came up to their knees. They spent time improving and digging new trenches. Even in this somewhat calmer sector, though, the threat of harm was ever-present.

The Commonwealth forces and the Germans were undermining each other, digging underground tunnels and packing them with explosives. When these bombs were detonated, galleries and trenches could collapse, burying soldiers alive. German snipers and trench mortars were also active during these early days in September.

On 9 September, Munt was badly wounded when he was shot in the head and neck. He was evacuated to Wimereux Stationary Hospital in northern France. Nearly two months later, he died of his wounds on the 6th of November 1916. He was 19 years old.

Alby Munt is buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France, one of nearly 3,000 Commonwealth soldiers buried there who died during the First World War.

Private Alban Wallace Munt 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 Private Alban Wallace Munt, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section