The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (108) Corporal Claudius Aloysius Roberto, 44th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (108) Corporal Claudius Aloysius Roberto, 44th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

108 Corporal Claudius Aloysius Roberto, 44th Battalion, AIF
KIA: 10 October 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Claudius Aloysius Roberto.

Claudius Roberto, known as “Claude”, was born in 1898, the only son of Benedict and Alice Roberto of Perth. Claude had four sisters, and his father was sometimes described as a Frenchman although there is some evidence he was born in Spain. He owned a shop in the centre of Perth, which sold wine, fruit and confectionery. Claude’s father was regularly in trouble for illegally selling wine, beer and cigarettes outside normal legal parameters. Claude worked in the shop, and was sometimes drawn into trouble, but it never resulted in serious consequences for either him or his father. In 1909 a Western Australian newspaper reported that “Benedict Roberto… drinks beer at the rate of a gallon per day[and his] children drink it like water.” Whether this was true or not, Claude managed to complete his education at the Christian Brothers’ College in Perth, and went on to work in Perth as a hairdresser after his father died in 1912.

Claude Roberto enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1916. He left Australia for active service overseas the following June with the 44th Battalion. His is one of the few service records that have been lost, and so we know little about his basic movements. However, a letter from his commanding officer, Captain Wilfred Stables of A Company, 44th Battalion, indicates that he was a capable soldier. He wrote in a letter to Alice Roberto: “I had the pleasure of having [Claude] in my platoon when the battalion left Australia. I pushed him along for promotion and he turned out all I expected of him. He did so well at Messines that I strongly recommended him for a reward … Allow me please, to congratulate you on having so brave and good-natured a lad as a son.”

From the battle of Messines in early June 1917 the 44th Battalion was involved in operations around the Belgian town of Ypres. There were 992 men of the battalion involved in these operations, with only 158 remaining unwounded when the battalion was relieved in October.
On 10 October 1917 Corporal Claude Roberto was accompanying Private Cook, a stretcher bearer, into the front line to assist him with the wounded. They found several wounded men, and Roberto paused to dress their wounds. He was wounded in the process, however his wound was light enough that he could walk back to the dressing station. He was never seen again.

After receiving the reports that her son was missing, Alice Roberto wrote to anyone she could discover who might help her find her son. In August 1918 she received a letter from Captain Wilfred Stables, who wrote, “I’m afraid I cannot give you any details as to his whereabouts, and I’m afraid that he has died and been buried quietly with many who fell in the big battle … The ground was in an awful state and the artillery fire tremendous, and I’m afraid, dear madam, that he never reached the dressing station. I sympathise with you very much in your uncertainty of mind regarding his fate, but I think it is better to face straight out that he has been killed.”

No more certain information ever came to light, nor was Claude’s body recovered from the battlefield. Today he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, with nearly 55,000 other names of men who died and have no known grave. He was 19 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 Corporal Claudius Aloysius Roberto, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section