Mawson polar expeditionist honoured at Australian War Memorial on Anzac Day

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will commemorate the service and sacrifice of St Kilda resident and Mawson polar expeditionist Captain Edward Frederick Robert Bage at the Last Post Ceremony on Anzac Day, 25 April 2025.

“Edward Bage was born on 17 April 1888 in St Kilda, Melbourne,” Australian War Memorial Director Matt Anderson PSM said.

Known as ‘Bob’, he attended Church of England Grammar School before studying civil engineering at Melbourne University. In 1910, he began his military career as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Australian Engineers.

Bage took leave to join Sir Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition, serving as the expedition’s astronomer, recorder of tides and assistant magnetician for two years (1911-1913), for which he received the King’s Polar Medal.

Days after the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Bage enlisted in the newly raised Australian Imperial Force and was assigned to the 3rd Field Company Engineers.

At Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, Bage and the 3rd Field Company Engineeers unloaded engineer stores and established a depot on the beach, where they were subjected to frequent shelling.

On 7 May 1915, under orders from General Bridges to undertake defensive works around Cape Helles in daylight, Bage’s party was spotted by Turkish snipers. Bage was shot three times, the third shot proving fatal.

His body was retrieved at nightfall, and he was buried by his comrades at Beach Cemetery, Anzac Cove.

Captain Bob Bage was 27 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,” Mr 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 Captain Edward Frederick Robert Bage will be live streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page: 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 images:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C70700

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1014301