The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Captain Keith Heritage, 19th Battalion (Infantry), First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial every 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 Craig Blanch, the story for this day was on Captain Keith Heritage, 19th Battalion (Infantry), First World War.

Captain Keith Heritage, 19th Battalion
KIA 26 July 1916
Photograph: DACS1276

Story delivered 26 July 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Captain Keith Heritage.

According to a report by the Department of Defence in 1920, Keith Heritage was the first man to volunteer for the new Australian force to be sent in aid of Britain's war effort. He was commissioned into the Australian Naval and Military Force and sent to New Guinea within days of his enlistment to take part in the capture of German colonies in the South Pacific.

After he had returned to Sydney, Keith Heritage enlisted in the AIF proper and was sent to Gallipoli, where he spent at least five months there before going to the Western Front.

In June 1916 Keith Heritage, now promoted to captain, was given command of a raiding party into enemy trenches. The party made it into the German trenches, where they spent five minutes blowing up two bomb stores and taking four prisoners. In the same action, Heritage single-handedly carried a wounded man through an intense bombardment back to the Australian trenches. He was the last man of the party to leave the hostile trench and was awarded the Military Cross for his conspicuous gallantry, dash and enterprise in leadership.

One month later, Captain Keith Heritage was dead. He was in the trenches at Pozières on 26 July 1916 with the 19th Battalion. While making his rounds one night, he noticed that two of the men on guard looked very tired. He told them to get a few hours sleep, and took their watch for them. He also gave them some of his own food. There was little to be had, because shellfire had blocked supply routes. As the two men lay down to rest nearby, a large high explosive shell landed near Captain Heritage, killing him almost instantly.

Keith Heritage's family and friends had only heard the news of his decoration days before news of his death reached Australia. His sister, a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital in Auburn, was celebrating his decoration at work each day by wearing the colours of the 19th Battalion. But one day, as she was about to dress a patient, she noticed a paragraph in a newspaper on the bed, announcing the death of her brother. She collapsed in shock. Keith Heritage was the only one of five brothers serving on the Western Front to die for his country.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War, and his photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Captain Keith Heritage and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.