The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1519) Private Gilbert Roy Evans, 12th 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 Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (1519) Private Gilbert Roy Evans, 12th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1519 Private Gilbert Roy Evans, 12th Battalion, AIF
Illness 23 April 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Gilbert Roy Evans.

Gilbert Evans was born on 18 June 1894, the eldest of six children born to Edward and Olive Evans of Ouse, in the Macquarie Plains area of central Tasmania. After his schooling, Evans worked as a farmer, as well as serving in the 93rd Battery of a local militia unit.

In November 1914, Evans travelled to Claremont, near Hobart, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. He began training with the reinforcements of the 12th Infantry Battalion, one of the first Australian units raised after the outbreak of the First World War.

On 2 February 1915, after less than two months’ training, Evans sailed from Melbourne for overseas service aboard the transport ship Clan McGillivray. He arrived in Egypt soon afterwards, and continued training with his battalion at the Mena camp near Cairo. In early March 1915, he transferred with his unit from Egypt to the Greek Island of Lemnos to continue training.

Evans’s battalion, the 12th, formed part of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Australian division, and was one of the first units to land on Gallipoli in the early hours of 25 April 1915. Evans, however, never took part in this action.

In mid-April he was transferred to a hospital ship and taken to Alexandria in Egypt, for treatment for pleurisy and bronchitis. The illness developed into meningitis and a severe inflammation of the inner ear. He died on 23 April, two days before the first landings on Gallipoli.
He was 20 years old.

He is buried at the Chatby Military War Memorial Cemetery in Alexandria, where over 2,250 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War now lie.

In the months following Evans’s death, his father and brother enlisted and served for Australia in the Great War. His father Edward served in Palestine, his brother Edward on the Western Front. They both survived the war.

Private Gilbert Roy Evans’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 Gilbert Roy Evans, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section