The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (787) Trooper Herbert Alfred Collins, 10th 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (787) Trooper Herbert Alfred Collins, 10th Light Horse Regiment, First World War.

787 Trooper Herbert Alfred Collins, 10th Light Horse Regiment
KIA 7 August 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 2 January 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Trooper Herbert Alfred Collins, who died during the First World War.

Herbert Collins was born in the Sydney suburb of Burwood in 1894 to Elviss and Amy Collins. At some point the family moved to the small town of Naninne in Western Australia, where Elviss worked as postmaster. When war was declared in August 1914, Herbert was working as an engine fireman. He enlisted in the AIF from Blackboy Hill in January 1915.

Herbert was assigned to the 3rd reinforcements of the 10th Light Horse Regiment. He left Fremantle on HMAT Itonus in February 1915 and, after spending some time training in Egypt, embarked for Gallipoli on 1 August.

Herbert’s first action on Gallipoli was to be his last. The fighting on Gallipoli had descended into a stalemate since the landings in April. To regain the initiative, allied forces launched a major offensive designed to take control of the high ground to the north and inland of Anzac Cove. A series of feints were organised to distract and divert the Turkish troops from the main attack. The charge at The Nek – the narrow bridge of land that stretched between Russell’s Top and Baby 700 – was one of these planned distractions.

Early in the morning of 7 August, four waves of troops from the 8th and 10th Light Horse were ordered to leave their trenches and charge across the Nek to overrun the Turkish positions on the slopes of Baby 700. The attack was a disaster. The artillery bombardment designed to clear the way for the charge stopped early, and the heavily defended Turkish troops had the higher ground.

The 10th Light Horse Regiment formed the third and fourth waves of the charge. The casualties were high, with some 138 men killed or wounded in the action. Official historian Charles Bean later wrote:

The 10th went forward to meet death instantly … the men running as swiftly and as straight as they could at the Turkish rifles. With that regiment went the flower of the youth of Western Australia.

Herbert was one of these casualties. He was initially listed as missing, until a board of inquiry assembled on Gallipoli determined that he – with some 37 other officers and men of the 10th Light Horse who could not be accounted for – had been killed in action.

Herbert is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli. This memorial was established after the war to commemorate the more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand troops who died in the Anzac area.

Herbert Collins’ name is listed on the Roll of Honour to my right, along with the names of more than 60,000 other Australians who died fighting in the First World War.

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

Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
Service Record: NAA B2455 COLLINS HA
10th Light Horse Regiment War Diary for August 1915: AWM4 10/15/4

C.E.W. Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 – Volume II: The Story of Anzac (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1938).

Peter Burness, The Nek: A Gallipoli Tragedy (Auckland: Exisle, 2012).

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website: www.cwgc.org