The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (666) Trooper Eoin Lindsay Smith, 8th Australian 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (666) Trooper Eoin Lindsay Smith, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, First World War.

666 Trooper Eoin Lindsay Smith, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment
KIA 27 June 1915
Photograph: P03713.001

Story delivered 9 January 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Trooper Eoin Lindsay Smith.

Eoin Smith was born in 1891 in Coleraine, Victoria, to John Smith and Euphemia Adamson née Walker. He had two older brothers, Donald and Norman. John Smith had immigrated to Australia from Scotland in 1852, and in 1905 was able to purchase the homestead at the Grassdale Estate, near Merino in Victoria, where he was working as a grazier.

Eoin had served in the Cadet Corps for five years before leaving school, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1915 at the age of 23. His attestation papers list his profession as “station overseer”. Eoin was posted as a private to the 8th Light Horse Regiment, established at Broadmeadows Training Camp, north of Melbourne.

Eoin embarked from Melbourne with the 8th Light Horse’s C Squadron in late February aboard the transport ship Star of Victoria. Arriving in Egypt in mid-March, Eoin underwent a period of training with his regiment.

The steep and rocky terrain on Gallipoli was unsuitable for horses, but the men of the light horse were later deployed to the peninsula without their horses. The 3rd Light Horse Brigade, of which the 8th Light Horse Regiment was a part, landed at Anzac Cove in May 1915 and was attached to the New Zealand and Australian Division. The regiment was deployed mostly on defensive activities throughout its time on the peninsula.

In June the regiment was fighting at Walker’s Ridge. In the early morning of 27 June it came under heavy shelling from the Turks. The unit diary notes that the enemy’s 6-inch howitzers and 75-millimetre guns were “doing considerable damage to trenches and killing and wounding many men”. One of the fallen was Eoin Smith, killed by a howitzer shell. He was 24 years old, and had been in service less than six months.

Eoin was buried at Beach Cemetery, about half a mile north of Anzac Cove, with the Reverend E Merrington officiating.
In Australia a notice was posted in the Argus commemorating the loss of the “dearly beloved youngest son of John and Euphemia”.

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

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

Christina Zissis
Editor, Military History Section

Sources:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/64023536

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1544724
http://trees.ancestrylibrary.com/tree/11102293/person/6046444599

http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/smith-eoin-lindsay-14250

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P03713.001/
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1012940/?image=3&fullscreen=true#display-image