The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (141) Lance Corporal Kenneth Halstead Jackson 3rd Battalion, AIF, First Wold 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (141) Lance Corporal Kenneth Halstead Jackson 3rd Battalion, AIF, First Wold War.

141 Lance Corporal Kenneth Halstead Jackson 3rd Battalion, AIF
KIA: 28 April 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 12 January 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Kenneth Halstead Jackson.

Kenneth Halstead Jackson was born on 21 November 1887 at Bondi, New South Wales, to Frederick and Jessie Jackson, the sixth son born to the couple.

Jackson grew up in the suburb of St Marys and was educated at Newington College and Homebush Grammar School. After leaving school he went to work for his father as a clerk in the Union Steamship Company office in Sydney. Following the death of his father in May 1914 he went to work for Messrs A.E. Rudder and Co. in Pitt Street, Sydney.

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Jackson and his older brother Eric enlisted in Sydney on 17 August for service with the AIF. The brothers joined the 3rd Battalion and were given consecutive regimental numbers: 140 for Eric and 141 for Kenneth.

The brothers embarked from Sydney aboard the transport ship Euripides on 20 October. After travelling to Albany their ship steamed in convoy to Egypt, where they landed in December.

After several months’ training in the desert, the battalion moved to Lemnos Island as part of the build-up for the Gallipoli campaign. Between landing at Egypt and sailing for Lemnos, Kenneth was promoted to lance corporal.

At approximately 5.30 in the morning on 25 April the 3rd Battalion began landing on the Gallipoli shoreline. The next three days saw intense fighting. The unit diary records the events of the night of 27 April and the following day:

During the night and through-out the day the battle continued with unabated vigour. We were sorely pressed but, owing to the arrival of reinforcements and the ships’ guns and our own artillery we were able to hold on … our men were completely exhausted, having been 4 days and 4 nights under the strain of a fierce battle.

At some point during that day Kenneth Jackson was killed. The manner of his death is unrecorded and his body could not be found. Today he is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli. He was 27 years old.

Eric Jackson would later be awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions during the battle of Lone Pine. He served in France and Belgium, where he was commissioned and returned home as a lieutenant in 1919.

Kenneth Jackson’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from 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 Lance Corporal Kenneth Halstead Jackson, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
First World War Embarkation Roll for Kenneth Halstead Jackson: http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/items/ACCNUM_LARGE/RCDIG1067368/RCDIG1067368--392-.JPG

Roll of Honour entry and circular – accessed through AWM website: http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1068874--867-.PDF

Ancestry entry for Kenneth Halstead Jackson: http://trees.ancestrylibrary.com/tree/15817597/person/315042054

National Archives of Australia, service record for Kenneth Halstead Jackson: www.naa.gov.au

Nepean Times, Saturday 5 June 1915, p. 3: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/86164432

AWM4 – 3rd Battalion War Diary April 1915: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/23/20/2