The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (7357) Private Allan Eglinton Hillam, 3rd Australian Infantry 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 , the story for this day was on (7357) Private Allan Eglinton Hillam, 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

7357 Private Allan Eglinton Hillam, 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
KIA: 22 March 1918

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Allan Eglinton Hillam.

Allan Eglinton Hillam was born in 1886 near Port Pirie, South Australia, one of nine children born to John and Marion Hillam. The family moved to Junee, New South Wales, where Allan and some of his brothers became farmers. In 1914, he married Eva Annie Emslie of Wangaratta in northern Victoria.

In February 1917, Hillam volunteered to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. He completed his initial training at Liverpool training camp outside Sydney. From there, he travelled to Melbourne and embarked on the transport ship Clan McGillivray in May, arriving in England at the end of June. For the next few months, Hillam undertook further training at the army camps on Salisbury Plain.

In November 1917, he sailed to France to join the fighting on the Western Front. Marching north to Belgium, he joined the 3rd Battalion, which had participated in the bloody fighting around Ypres in September and October. The battalion was in a reserve area, with the men spending the winter rotating between training and time in the front line.

With the collapse of the Russian Empire in late 1917 and Russia’s withdrawal from the war, German commanders shifted their focus to the Western Front. Beginning in March 1918, German high command launched a massive attack along the front, seeking to force Britain and France to the negotiation table.

On 22 March 1918, the 3rd Battalion was in the front line near Ypres when Hillam was killed in action. The precise cause of death was not recorded, but as his unit was periodically under German artillery barrage and gas attack, it seems likely that Hillam was struck by shell fragments and killed.

Hillam was initially buried near where he was killed, but after the war, many of the small cemeteries in the area were consolidated. He is now buried in Hooge Crater Cemetery near Ypres, alongside nearly 6,000 Commonwealth soldiers of the First World War.

Two of Hillam’s cousins also died during their service in the AIF. Private George Hillam served with the 43rd Battalion and died of illness in France in July 1917. Private Hugh Hillam of the 29th Battalion was killed in action in France in April 1918.

Allan Hillam was survived in Australia by his mother, his widow, and his brothers and sisters. His widow Eva suffered further pain after she enquired why she had not received his personal effects. Hillam’s effects had been sent home, bound for Australia on the steam ship Barunga when the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Cornwall in July 1918. British ships were soon on the scene and managed to rescue all aboard, but the personal effects of Hillam, and about 5,000 other Australian soldiers who had died on the Western Front, were lost.

Private Allan Eglinton Hillam 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 Allan Eglinton Hillam, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section