The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (60224) Private Thomas Benjamin Galbraith, 1st 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (60224) Private Thomas Benjamin Galbraith, 1st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

60224 Private Thomas Benjamin Galbraith, 1st Battalion, AIF
Accidental (train accident): 25 April 1919

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Benjamin Galbraith.

Thomas Benjamin Galbraith was born on 5 May 1881, the fifth of 12 children born to John and Alice Galbraith of Tamworth, New South Wales.

Galbraith worked as a carpenter, and at some point moved from New South Wales to Queensland, where he married Anna Hill in 1906. The couple had four children together: John, Amildi, Kathleen and Bertie. Around 1910 Galbraith moved with his family back to Tamworth, and then eventually to North Sydney.

Galbraith’s wife Anna passed away in October 1913, leaving him with four young children. The family later broke apart, and by 1916 some of the children were left in the care of a Mrs Dobing, of Neutral Bay.

Galbraith enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 11 June 1918, and after training sailed for service overseas aboard the transport ship Bakara. He arrived in London on 14 November 1918, just days after the Armistice that brought the First World War to an end, and was allotted to the reinforcements of the 1st Infantry Battalion. He would not take part in any fighting, but he would still serve for Australia.

After a brief spell in hospital with influenza, Galbraith transferred to France. Although the war was over, thousands of troops remained in the country and needed supplies to keep them housed, clothed and fed.

Galbraith served at the Australian depot at Abancourt, south-west of Amiens, and in early February 1919 was attached to a bakery unit of the Royal Australian Service Corps.

Five months after the end of the First World War, on 25 April 1919, Anzac Day, Galbraith was killed in a tramway accident at Saint Germain-au-Mont-d’Dor, north of Lyon near the Rhone River.

He was 37 years old.

He is buried in the St Germain au Mont D’Or Communal Cemetery Extension, where over 100 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War now lie.

Private Thomas Benjamin Galbraith’s 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 Benjamin Galbraith, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section