Rockhampton Anzac honoured at Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will be commemorating the service and sacrifice of Rockhampton resident Corporal Roydon Hoadley Pinhey at the Last Post Ceremony on Tuesday 18 June.

“Roydon Pinhey was born on 21 April 1884 in the Sydney suburb of Manly. Known as Roy, he was the youngest of three children born to William Pinhey, a bank inspector, and his wife Laura,” Australian War Memorial historian Meghan Adams said.

“After completing his education at Sydney Grammar School, he worked as a sheep farmer at Quirindi, NSW, before moving to Rockhampton, Queensland where he was employed as a stock and station agent.

“Roy Pinhey enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 2 June 1915 in Brisbane. He was assigned to reinforcements of the 25th Battalion, and after a short period of training, was promoted to corporal.

“In December 1915, Roy Pinhey joined his unit on Gallipoli just 10 days before the allies decided to abandon the campaign. After continuing training in Egypt, the 25th Battalion embarked for the Western Front in March 1916.

“On 29 July 1916, shortly after midnight, the men of the 25th Battalion took part in the advance on German positions around the French village of Pozieres. By the following morning, Corporal Roy Pinhey was among the missing. Twelve months later, a court of enquiry determined he had most likely been killed in action.

“Today, he is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux among more than 10,000 others who have no known grave.

“Corporal Roy Pinhey was 32 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 3,300 ceremonies, each featuring individual stories 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 Roydon Pinhey 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 images:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C73855