The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3914) Private Thomas Henry Puddephatt, 1st Pioneer 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (3914) Private Thomas Henry Puddephatt, 1st Pioneer Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3914 Private Thomas Henry Puddephatt, 1st Pioneer Battalion, AIF
KIA 25 April 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Henry Puddephatt.

Thomas Puddephatt was born on 14 February 1879, one of nine children born to John and Ann Puddephatt of Waragee, near Wodonga in northern Victoria. Thomas was a prominent member of the local rifle club, and worked as a bridge carpenter around the Wodonga area.

On 3 August 1915, Thomas Puddephatt enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. He began training with the reinforcements of the 6th Infantry Battalion, and on 23 November he sailed from Melbourne aboard the transport ship Ceramic.

While he made the passage from Australia to Egypt, Puddephatt’s younger brother Frederick was killed by artillery while serving in the 24th Infantry Battalion on Gallipoli.

While in Egypt, Thomas Puddephatt transferred from the 6th Battalion to a new unit: the 1st Pioneer Battalion. Pioneer battalions played a vital role, their members served as engineers, and were involved with digging, clearing and maintaining trenches. But they also carried weapons, and when required could be used to support front-line troops.

In March 1916, Puddephatt sailed with his new unit from Egypt for France and the war on the Western Front.
Soon after their arrival in Marseilles in southern France, Puddephatt and the 1st Pioneer Battalion moved north to the area near the fighting at Armentieres and Fleurbaix. This relatively quiet stretch of the Western Front known was the “Nursery Sector”, where newly arrived Australian units could become acclimatised to the rigors of trench warfare.

Puddephatt and his unit spent their first weeks on the Western Front training, tunnelling, and carrying out essential engineering and repair work in front line and communication trenches.

On 25 April 1916, one year after the first Anzac landings at Gallipoli, Puddephatt was carrying out repair work in a communication trench at Cellar Farm in northern France when his sector of the front came under German high explosive and shrapnel artillery fire. Puddephatt was struck in the chest with a piece of shrapnel and was killed instantly.

He was 37 years old.

His remains now lie in the Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery in France, where over 1,500 casualties of the First World War are now commemorated.

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 Thomas Henry Puddephatt, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section