The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (550) Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War.

Places
Accession Number AWM2020.1.1.184
Collection type Film
Object type Last Post film
Physical description 16:9
Maker Australian War Memorial
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Campbell
Date made 2 July 2020
Access Open
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Only personal, non-commercial, research and study use permitted. Permission of copyright holder required for any commercial use and/or reproduction.
Description

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 Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (550) Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War.

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Speech transcript

Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company
KIA 29 October 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes.

Waldemar Hawkes, known as “Bob”, was born on 18 November 1894, the second son of Waldemar Gaskell Hawkes and his wife Isabella of Burra, South Australia. His father was a prominent pastoralist and sheep breeder in South Australia; he had founded Koonoona stud, where Bob was born, and had interests in sheep properties in South Australia, New South Wales, and Western Australia. Young Bob Hawkes was educated at Queen’s School in North Adelaide, and went on to work on his father’s properties.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, the 19-year-old Hawkes was working on Morden Station, one of his father’s properties in New South Wales. He immediately telegraphed his father for permission to enlist. His mother and sisters were on their return journey from England at the time, and his father replied that he was concerned that his mother would not want him to enlist. A friend, David Killicoat, later recalled Bob asking him what he should do. David reminded him that an old football injury had left him with a bad knee and perhaps he should not go, to which Bob replied, “Hang the knee, I’ll go as soon as mother returns.”

Bob Hawkes’ knee injury was quite serious, and although he was approved for service abroad, he was not approved for general service. He was posted to the 9th Light Horse Regiment, and while in Egypt managed to get the medical board’s decision overlooked. In February 1915 he was promoted to lance corporal and assigned to the regiment’s machine-gun section. He landed on Gallipoli in May, and during the August Offensive was shot in the chest, arm and leg. He was evacuated to hospital in Malta and later London.

In mid-1916 Hawkes was sent for further machine-gun training, and later transferred to the 7th Machine Gun Company. He was wounded in the thigh on the Somme in November 1916 and sent to hospital in Birmingham. He returned to active service again in January 1917 and was commissioned the following March, assuming command of an Australian Machine Gun Depot Company at Belton Park in England.

In August 1917 Second Lieutenant Hawkes was transferred to the 21st Machine Gun Company, and the following month he was promoted to lieutenant. He wrote to his father on his way back to the front line, saying, “In the event of me being scuppered … you must just take it as the unfortunate circumstances of war and don’t worry, or allow anyone else to do so either. I am perfectly fit, happy and prepared to take whatever comes my way, so look at it all in the best light as I know you will … I’ll cable as soon as I am out again.”

On 29 October 1917 Lieutenant Bob Hawkes was in a dugout with Lieutenant Norman Martin firing in support of operations on the Ypres Salient. An artillery shell scored a direct hit on their position, killing both instantly. Hawkes and Martin were probably buried together near the place they were killed, but their graves were lost in subsequent fighting and today they are commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.

Hawkes was killed four years and two days after enlisting, and less than three weeks before his 23rd birthday.

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 Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

  • Video of The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (550) Lieutenant Waldemar Robert Hawkes, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company, First World War. (video)