The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX4610) Private Alexander Markham, 2/7th Battalion, AIF, Second 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 , the story for this day was on (VX4610) Private Alexander Markham, 2/7th Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

VX4610 Private Alexander Markham, 2/7th Battalion, AIF
KIA 3 January 1941

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Alexander Edward Markham.

Alexander Markham was born on 5 November1906, the second son of William and Ellen Markham of Sydney. When he was young, the Markham family moved to Renmark in South Australia. Known as “Alec” and “Knacker” to his family and friends, Markham went to school at Mount Barker and Renmark. A prominent local sportsman who excelled at cycling, and competed for the Renmark Cycling Club in competitions across South Australia, Markham was described as a “splendid bushman”, who was well liked and respected.

Before the war, Markham lived and worked for about six years at the Nulla Station, near Lake Victoria in far south¬–west New South Wales. His enlistment papers show that he worked on this station as a tank sinker. On October 1939, not long after the beginning of the Second World War, he travelled to nearby Mildura, just over the border in Victoria, and enlisted to serve in the Australian Imperial Force. He joined D Company of the newly formed 2/7th Infantry Battalion.

Markham trained at the base at Puckapunyal and in April 1940 sailed with the rest of his unit from Melbourne for overseas service. He arrived at El Kanatara on the Suez Canal in mid-May, and transferred to Palestine for further training. As the men of the 2/7th Battalion adjusted to the desert conditions, in July Markham was briefly hospitalised with sandfly fever, an infection caused by mosquito bites.

In September 1940, Italian forces allied with Nazi Germany attacked Allied positions in Egypt. Although initially successful, their advance was soon checked, and later pushed back westwards towards the Libyan–Egyptian border. In response to these attacks Australian units, including Markham’s 2/7th Battalion, transferred from Palestine to Egypt in preparation to meet the Italian threat.

After briefly stopping in camps near Cairo and Alexandria, Markham and the 2/7th by Christmas 1940 were stationed near the Egyptian border with Libya, not far from the front line. They were moving to the area in preparation for the Australian attack on Bardia, an Italian-held harbour town 24 kilometres into Libyan territory.

The battle, which lasted from 3–5 January 1941, was a success for the Australian 6th Division, which took 40,000 Italian prisoners of war for the loss of 130 Australians killed and 326 wounded.

On the 3rd of January, Markham and the 2/7th conducted a series of early morning attacks on Italian strong points to the south of Bardia. Markham was one of three members of his battalion to be killed on the opening day of the battle. He was likely killed by machine-gun or mortar fire while attacking an Italian post.

He was 34 years old.

His loss was greatly mourned back home in Australia, where he was remembered as the first soldier from the Renmark area to be killed in action in the war. A local paper described him as, “Sturdily self reliant, an honest worker and regular man of the great open space, he was one of the sterling type which this country can ill afford to lose”.

His remains lie buried in the Salum Halfaya Cemetery in Egypt, where over 2,000 Commonwealth soldiers of the Second World War now lie. His gravestone reads: “He lived and died for others”.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second 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 Alexander Markham, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section