The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1004) Lance Corporal Francis George Carnell 4th Battalion, AIF, 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 Andrew Smith, the story for this day was on (1004) Lance Corporal Francis George Carnell 4th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1004 Lance Corporal Francis George Carnell 4th Battalion, AIF
DOW 10 August 1915
Photograph: H06329

Story delivered 17 January 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Francis George Carnell, whose photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection.

Born in June 1859 in Sevenoaks in Kent, England, Francis George Carnell was one of six children born to George Frederick and Emma Otte Carnell. He was schooled at Harrow in Oxford and also studied at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and Trinity College, Dublin.

Carnell served for eight years in Africa with the British South African Company Police and later the Cape Mounted Police. He saw service in the Zulu, Basutoland, and Matabele wars.

During his time in South Africa, Carnell met and later married a Scottish woman, Mary Martin. Their son, Francis George Duncan Carnell, was born in September 1884 on the eastern cape of South Africa. In 1894, aged 35, Carnell immigrated with his family to Australia, settling on a farm in the Neutral Bay area of New South Wales.

Carnell returned to South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War with the Cape Mounted Riflemen, and returned safely home to Australia. When the First World War began, Carnell put his age down from 55 to 45 in order to enlist. He joined the 4th Battalion at Randwick on 5 September and embarked with the battalion aboard the transport ship Euripides in October.

After several months in Egypt, the battalion moved to Lemnos in early April and took part in the Gallipoli landings of 1915. By the end of June Carnell had been promoted to lance corporal. On 7 August, during the heavy fighting on Lone Pine, Carnell was wounded in the left side of his chest. He was evacuated to the HMS Delta to be transferred to Egypt, but he died of his wounds three days later while still en route. He was buried at sea, and at the war’s end his name was one of those added to the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli.

Carnell’s name is also 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 service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal Francis George Carnell, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section