The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (15216) Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards, 12th Field Artillery Brigade, 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 , the story for this day was on (15216) Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards, 12th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF, First World War.

15216 Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards, 12th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF
KIA 21 March 1918

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards.

Arthur Roy Edwards was born on 26 February 1893, the youngest son of Louisa and Thomas Edwards of the Hobart suburb Battery Point.

Edwards enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 9 August 1915, and after training sailed from Melbourne aboard the transport ship Port Lincoln for Egypt. Edwards was too late to join Australian troops on the Gallipoli peninsula and instead prepared to take part in fighting on the Western Front. Edwards continued his training first by attending artillery school first in Tel el Kebir in Egypt, and later in England.

In March 1917, Edwards sailed for France, where he joined the 112th Howitzer Battery of the 12th Field Artillery Brigade. Edwards joined this unit on exactly the same day as his older brother Charles, and the two brothers served in the same unit in the fighting in France and Belgium for the rest of their war.

The Edwards brothers served as artillery gunners, supporting Australian and British operations by firing 4.5 inch howitzers on German positions in support of Australian and British infantry attacks. During infantry attacks on German lines, they provided a supporting barrage. Howitzers also used high explosive shells to weaken and destroy enemy parapets and trenches. Because of the damage artillery could do, the Australian batteries were often the target of German artillery counter-battery fire.

Throughout early 1917, the Edwards brothers supported Australian actions as the Germans retreated to a series of shortened and well-defended trenches known as the Hindenburg Line. On 11 April 1917 they provided intermittent artillery support fire to the bloody, confused, and unsuccessful Australian attack at Bullecourt [pron. Buller - coor] in northern France.

In July 1917 Edwards and the 12th Field Artillery Brigade transferred north to Belgium. On 20 September, they provided artillery support for Australian forces taking part in the battle of Menin Road, to the east of Ypres; and on 26 September, in the battle of Polygon Wood. Both battles were considered successful by British and Australian forces, but came at the expense of over 10,000 Australian casualties.

On 21 March 1918, the 12th Field Artillery Brigade was resting near Dranoutre, behind the front lines on the French-Belgian border. Edwards and several men of his unit were on guard duties on the wagon lines at Wormelow Camp, when the guard room they were in received a direct hit from a German artillery shell. Three of the men inside: Arthur Edwards, Leslie Tynan and Horace Mamwell, died instantly; a fourth, Albert Scurrah, died of his injuries soon after. Edwards was 25 years old.

All four men were buried in the Dranoutre Military Cemetery in Belgium, where nearly 500 soldiers of the First World War now lie. Edwards and Scurrah, both from Tasmania, are commemorated on the Tasmanian Walk of Honour in Hobart, and their plaques are opposite one another on the path.

Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards 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 Gunner Arthur Roy Edwards, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section