The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (951) Private David John Simcock, 11th Battalion, AIF, First Wolrd 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 Tristan Rallings, the story for this day was on (951) Private David John Simcock, 11th Battalion, AIF, First Wolrd War.

951 Private David John Simcock, 11th Battalion, AIF
KIA 2 May 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private David John Simcock.

David Simcock was born on 5 July 1883, the son of Edward and Bertha Simcock of Callington, South Australia. When David was 12 years old his father died after a “very painful and lingering” cancer. His sister was also suffering from an extended illness, and David became the breadwinner for the family. A friend later described how from that point, “Dave was the man of the house – its adviser in all things even then – in fact, his one thought was of and for his own people.”

Dave Simcock began working at a fruit seller’s barrow in Port Pirie, and was quickly successful. He had a shock of bright red hair which earned him the nickname “Pink Top”, and he was described as having an “originality that was irresistible, and this evoked that bright repartee and captivating humour that were so well known to all with whom he came in contact.” Around the turn of the century, the Simcock family moved to Western Australia, where Edward Simcock had apparently worked as a gold miner. Dave Simcock once again turned to the fruit-selling business, travelling around the state in order to establish relationships directly with the growers.

In 1906, Dave married Ellen Collins and they went on to have two children, Doris and Norman. He was eventually able to start a fruit shop in Barrack Street. He later recalled, “I had to borrow the money to pay the first week’s rent. Well, I had to hustle, I can tell you, to make good, with such a handicap as that.” But hustle he did, and Pink Top’s Fruit Shop was soon very successful. Simcock’s sales techniques regularly resulted in crowds on the footpath on Barrack Street, and disrupted traffic more than once. In 1912 he was in trouble for obstructing the traffic in Barrack Street; one bystander later said, “I suppose Simcock was doing the usual thing – crying out and trying to attract purchasers of ‘his beautiful fruit’.” Far from causing resentment, “Pink Top” was extremely popular and well known for his antics. As early as 1911 he was described as “this red-headed hustler [who] has become quite an institution in the city”, and for decades after the war he was fondly remembered as “a smart-tongued, ruddy, redheaded young man with a fund of witty repartee.”
Yet despite his often over-the-top humour, Dave Simcock had a “deeply serious side to his nature… [and] hated pretence in anything or anybody”. Simcock enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force a month after the outbreak of war in 1914. Leaving his business in the hands of his manager, he sailed for active service overseas with the 11th Battalion in November 1914.

Simcock wrote long, entertaining letters home to family, friends, and even his customers after leaving Australia. One of his earliest letters to his family described leaving Fremantle, and how “on the second day we were well out of sight of land, and about 3pm noticed some smoke … when we got nearer we found a sight never to be missed. There were transports and warships, and we took our position with them, the vessels travelling three abreast.”

Simcock made “a strange, ungainly, splay-footed soldier,” but his sense of fun earned him enormous popularity among the 11th Battalion. He wrote of training near the pyramids in Egypt, adding “there is a good deal of fun to be got out of this life one way and another. We have a good deal of fun with the donkeys. There are plenty of music halls, to all of which we get free admission … they have a way of selling milk quite different to anything I have ever seen before. Instead of carrying a can of milk with them, they lead round a cow and milk her as customers demand.”

Pink Top’s fame followed him to Egypt. Soldiers wrote jokes home featuring the red-headed salesman setting up shop at the pyramids. In one joke, Pink Top “pulled out [a] crumpled calico [sign] and read: ‘Pink Top’s Pyramidian Boneyard. Bones sold here at the lowest rates!... Special Sale Now On; any quantities supplied half-rates!” In January 1915 nearly 700 officers and men of the 11th Battalion posed on the Great Pyramid of Cheops for what is now a famous photograph. The man at the very top is Dave Simcock, deliberately put there by his comrades so that the photo would have “a pink top”.

In the early hours of 25 April 1915, the 11th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove under heavy fire. Private Simcock had apparently had a fear of encountering barbed wire in the water and cutting his legs up before getting ashore. This fear was “sedulously encouraged by his mates”, until Simcock solved the problem by wrapping pieces of tin into his puttees. He landed with D Company without encountering wire, but his battalion quickly became muddled as the men stormed the heights. Over the following days, the Anzacs fought desperately to secure the front line, and it took several days to organise the situation.

At some point during the early days on Gallipoli, Private Dave Simcock was killed in action. There were many stories written home of the manner of his death, from his being “blown to pieces” to being killed “while leading his company in a charge on the Turkish positions after all the other officers had been shot down”. Probably the most reliable account comes from Sergeant Mason, who was not far from Walker’s Ridge when he saw Private Simcock crawl forward to try to find a wounded man he knew was lying in the scrub. His official date of death is 2 May 1915.

Western Australians were shocked at the loss of their own Pink Top so early in the campaign. His death inspired a number of would-be poets including “ATC” who wrote
Hats off! Another Name
Burns on the shining roll of fame
Another, “Dryblower”, wrote:
‘E went tearin’ at the Turk,
Game and good;
‘E got in some willing work
Like ‘e would
Wot ‘e ‘ad ter give ‘e gave
An’ in a foreign grave
‘e’s sleeping like a brave
Soldier should!

A South Australian later wrote, “instead of writing bad verse about the gallant fellow it would do far more good to remember those he has left behind him.” Even the Premier of Western Australia, Mr. Scaddan, said, “among the many who have been lost to Western Australia, I cannot help referring specially to Private Simcock who I knew very well… [and] I sympathise with his mother, wife and family.”

Today, Private Dave Simcock is buried in Baby 700 Cemetery at Anzac. It is believed his body was identified after the war by the makeshift tin plates under his puttees. He has a simple epitaph that reads, “In memory of the dear husband of Ellen Simcock of Leederville, WA.” He was 32 years old.

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 David John Simcock, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section