Bundalong Anzac honoured at Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will commemorate the service and sacrifice of Bundalong resident Second Lieutenant Thomas McLeod Carmichael at the Last Post Ceremony on Tuesday 6 May 2025, almost 110 years to the day since he died at Gallipoli.

“Thomas McLeon Carmichael was born in June 1892 in Bundalong, Victoria, one of six children born to Alexander and Annie Carmichael,” Australian War Memorial historian Dr Thomas Rogers said.

“Known as Tom, he attended primary school in nearby Esmond, high school in Melbourne, and after leaving school, taught woodworking at Benalla High School.”

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Carmichael volunteered for service in the Australian Imperial Force and joined the 7th Australian Infantry Battalion.

In October, Carmichael embarked at Melbourne on the troop ship Hororata, part of the first convoy of Australian and New Zealand troops to the war.

The 7th Battalion landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. In early May, The Australian 2nd Brigade, of which the 7th Battalion was part, was withdrawn from the Anzac area and landed at Cape Helles as part of a major offensive to capture the high ground there.

Just after 5 pm on 8 May 1915 as the Australian and allied troops attacked, Carmichael was leading a charge when he was struck by bullets, dying of his wounds shortly afterwards. He was 22 years old.

The Last Post ceremony is held at 4.30 pm every day except Christmas Day in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial.

Each ceremony shares the story behind one of 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour. To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 4,100 ceremonies, each featuring an individual story of service from colonial to recent conflicts. It would take more than 280 years to read the story behind each of the 103,000 names listed on the Roll of Honour.

“The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service,” Memorial Director Matt Anderson said.

“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died. We also tell the stories of who they were when they were alive, and of the families who loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.

“The Last Post is now associated with remembrance but originally it was a bugle call to sound the end of the day’s activities in the military. It is a fitting way to end each day at the Memorial.”

The Last Post Ceremony honouring the service of Second Lieutenant Thomas McLeod Carmichael will be live streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/awmlastpost.

The stories told at the Last Post Ceremony are researched and written by the Memorial’s military historians, who begin the process by looking at nominal rolls, attestation papers and enlistment records before building profiles that include personal milestones and military experiences.

HANDOUT image: AWM P05248.021