The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2777A) Lance Corporal Victor Alfred Godfrey Paice, 60th Battalion, 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (2777A) Lance Corporal Victor Alfred Godfrey Paice, 60th Battalion, First World War.

2777A Lance Corporal Victor Alfred Godfrey Paice, 60th Battalion
KIA 19 July 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 3 October 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Victor Alfred Godfrey Paice.

Victor Paice was born in Albert Park, Victoria, in 1895 to Alfred Paice and his wife, May. He attended the Burnley School and went on to work in dairy produce and at Barnes’s Honey Factory in Melbourne. Paice had been a member of the senior cadets during school, and when he left he joined the citizens’ forces, where he rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Yarra Borderers.

Paice enlisted in the AIF in July 1915. Because he was just 20 years old at the time, he had to get his parents’ permission to enlist, which they both gave. Four months later he was sent overseas with the 6th reinforcements to the 22nd Battalion, arriving in Egypt in February 1916.

At the time Paice arrived in Egypt, the AIF was undergoing a period of rapid expansion and reorganisation, and as a result of this Victor Paice was ultimately transferred to the 60th Battalion and promoted to lance corporal. He arrived in France to fight on the Western Front late in June 1916.

On 13 July he wrote home to say that he was in a company with 80 other men from his local area of Richmond. His family never heard from him again. Six days later, on 19 July, the 60th Battalion participated in an operation near the French village of Fromelles. It was a disaster. The battalion suffered massive casualties and was withdrawn the following morning. At roll call after leaving the front line, just four officers and 61 other ranks were present: 757 men of the battalion had been made casualties.

Nobody survived who could give any information as to the fate of Lance Corporal Victor Paice. A court of inquiry in August 1917 ruled that he must have been killed in action at Fromelles on the 19th. His remains were never identified and he has no known grave. He was 21 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Victor Alfred Godfrey Paice, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.