The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1505) Private George Reuben Robert Green, 13th Battalion, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (1505) Private George Reuben Robert Green, 13th Battalion, First World War.

1505 Private George Reuben Robert Green, 13th Battalion
KIA 28 April 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private George Green.

George Green was born on 10 June 1896, the eldest son of George and Eliza Green of Bendigo, Victoria.

Educated at the Gravel Hill School, George went on to take up an apprenticeship as a carpenter with the Sweeney and Sons in Bendigo. His father, who worked on the Town Hall staff in Bendigo, had served during the Boer War. George shared his father’s interest in the military, and served in the light horse unit of the local senior cadets. He was described as “a bonny bright lad”, “of a lovable disposition, although he had a quiet reserve with him that made him even more lovable … a lad of very fine physique, a thorough horseman [and] a good all-round athlete.”

George Green enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914. As he was just over 18 years old, his father wrote a letter of consent, and said that he would have gone himself if he was not too old. George was accepted for service with the first reinforcements to the 13th Battalion, and left Australia on 22 December 1914 on board the troopship Berrima.

Private Green arrived in Egypt in February 1915, and continued training in the desert for several weeks. On 10 April 1915, the 13th Battalion began to leave its training camp in Cairo to make the journey towards Gallipoli. Arriving on the island of Lemnos a week later, the men under took boat drill, scaling ladders, swimming, and undertaking preparation to land on the Turkish coast.

The advanced parties of Australian troops were already ashore at Anzac Cove when the 13th Battalion left Lemnos at 10.40 am on the morning of 25 April 1915. The battalion began to disembark in the evening, and by the following day was at the head of Monash Valley helping to establish a defensive line.

Two days after landing on Gallipoli, Private George Green was shot, probably by a sniper’s bullet. His friend, Private Cyril James, wrote to Green’s mother to say, “Well, we fought on until the 28th April – the day George got killed. He fought well, never thinking of himself. His thoughts were occupied fighting for King and country. After he got shot he only lived for a while. He thought of home besides his country. He asked me when I got back to go and see you.” James’s letter brought comfort to Mr and Mrs Green, who were glad “to think that their son was tended by a comrade in his dying moments, and his dying thoughts were of home.”

In Bendigo it was reported that George Green’s “wide circle of friends, while proud of his sterling patriotism and manly qualities, have felt his death very deeply, and have expressed their sincerest sympathy with Mr and Mrs Green.”

If George Green’s body was recovered from the battlefield and buried, his grave has been lost. Today he is commemorated on the memorial to the missing at Lone Pine, with nearly 5,000 other men with no known grave or who were buried at sea. He was killed a little over a week before his 19th 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 Private George Green, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section