The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (294) Trooper Charles Henry Lane, 9th Light Horse Regiment, First 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (294) Trooper Charles Henry Lane, 9th Light Horse Regiment, First World War.

294 Trooper Charles Henry Lane, 9th Light Horse Regiment
DOW 29 June 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 29 June 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Trooper Charles Henry Lane of the 9th Light Horse Regiment, who died of wounds on Gallipoli in June 1915.

Charles Henry Lane was born in Nathalia in Victoria in 1894, and was one of four children born to James Owen Lane. Little is known about the Lane family during this period, other than it was a troubled and financially unfortunate family and Charles seems to have had a difficult childhood. The historic records mention nothing of Charles’ mother, but we know that the four Lane children were raised by their stepmother, Florence, in the years before the war. The Lane family was living in South Australia when war was declared, and Charles was working as a station hand near Ceduna.

It was probably due to his skills working with horses that caused 20-year-old Charles Lane to enlist in the Light Horse at the Morphettville barracks in October 1914. After a period of training in Melbourne, Charles left Australia with the 9th Light Horse Regiment in February 1915 and arrived in Egypt the following month in preparation for the campaign in the Dardanelles.

Charles landed on Gallipoli on 21 May 1915, although the Light Horse regiments did so without their mounts due to the nature of the formidable terrain. The 9th Light Horse came ashore at Anzac Cove under Turkish shrapnel, and after a night camped in Mule Gulley proceeded into the firing line at Walker’s Ridge where the regiment relieved the Auckland Mounted Rifles.

No sooner had they filed into the line than Turkish troops attacked the position with hand grenades on the evening of 28 May, killing two men and wounding two others. Charles Lane was one of the wounded, and was evacuated to the hospital ship Sicilia with fragmentation wounds to his left thigh and a compound fracture to his femur. Stretcher-bearers carried the wounded through the narrow saps and trenches down to the beach at Anzac, and it would have been several hours before Trooper Lane finally arrived on board the Sicilia to receive surgical treatment. Proper care came too late, and Trooper Charles Lane succumbed to his wounds the following day. As was the case with men who died on hospital ships during the campaign, he was buried at sea, but his name is listed on the Lone Pine Memorial.

Charles Lane is also commemorated on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with 60,000 others from the First World War. There is no photograph in the Memorial’s collection to display 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 Trooper Charles Lane, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.