The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (TX110) Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris, HQ SIGS 1 AUST ARMY (C of SIGS), Second 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 (TX110) Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris, HQ SIGS 1 AUST ARMY (C of SIGS), Second World War.

TX110 Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris, HQ SIGS 1 AUST ARMY (C of SIGS)
Injuries 9 May 1943

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris.

Alan Harris was born on 29 August 1915 in Launceston, Tasmania, the only son of Allan and Agnes Harris.

Young Alan began work as a farm apprentice at Sheffield, but soon left for Queensland. Over the next five years he travelled through western and northern Queensland, Arnhem Land, Darwin, the Torres Strait, and Batavia.

He returned to Tasmania in 1937, and began work in the electrical branch of the Mt Lyell Company at Queenstown while attending technical school.

Harris was intending to travel to South Africa when he had finished his trade certificate, but these plans were put on hold by the advent of the Second World War.

The Harris family had a proud history of service, with the first recorded commission in the family occurring in 1760. Family members noted that they had served the Crown without a break since 1811.

Alan Harris duly enlisted on 20 October 1939. With his recent trade experience, he was soon taken on strength of a signals corps. They were responsible for installing, maintaining and operating all types of telecommunications equipment and information systems.

Harris showed leadership potential and received steady promotions during his service: from a position as a linesman to lance corporal in early June 1940; corporal later that same month; lance sergeant in August; and sergeant in June 1941.

He embarked for overseas service on 1 October 1940, landing in Palestine in early November. Harris would go on to serve in the First Libyan Campaign, in Greece, and in Syria.

In January 1942 he left the Middle East, landing in Adelaide in late March. In May he was granted a commission and given the rank of lieutenant.

By May 1943, Harris was attending officer training school at Bonegilla in north-east Victoria. On the evening of 9 May he was aboard a bus carrying 34 military personnel that was hit by a train at a road crossing near Wodonga. Twenty-five people were killed in the accident, including Harris, who suffered major head and chest injuries which proved to be mortal.

An inquest into the accident found that the railway crossing was unattended and the bus had no warning of the approaching train.

Those who died in the accident were buried with military honours in Albury War Cemetery. Relatives from four states arrived for the funeral, and businesses closed during the ceremony – as four trucks carrying caskets proceeded from Bonegilla through Wodonga and Albury to meet 125 pallbearers.

Newspapers reported the day as being “a gloomy one in the district’s history”, noting that “No fatality of comparable magnitude ever previously occurred in the district.”

Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris and those 23 military personnel who died as a result of the accident are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lieutenant Alan McGuire Harris, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section