The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2456) Private Leslie Shoemark, 31st 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (2456) Private Leslie Shoemark, 31st Battalion, First World War.

2456 Private Leslie Shoemark, 31st Battalion
DOW 25 January 1917
Photograph: P03633.004

Story delivered 18 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Leslie Shoemark.

Les Shoemark was one of four sons and five daughters born to George and Emily Shoemark of Lake Bathurst. Little is known of his schooling, but he went on to become a blacksmith like his father, and then obtained employment at the locomotive yards in Goulburn. In mid-1915 news was received at the yards that Arthur Sykes of Goulburn had died in Egypt of wounds received at the Anzac Cove dawn landing. As a result, Sykes’ brother and six other men joined the Australian Imperial Force, intending to “avenge the death of their brother and comrade”. Leslie Shoemark was one of the group.

Private Shoemark joined the 4th reinforcements to the 31st Battalion and was sent to Egypt. He suffered two serious bouts of illness – one in Egypt and one after arriving in France in September 1916 – and did not join his battalion in the field until late October. The 31st Battalion spent much of the winter of 1916–17, one of the harshest on record, in training, rotating in and out of the front line and providing working parties.

In late January 1917 the 31st Battalion was in the front line around Trônes Wood in France. Shoemark was part of a working party constructing dugouts. They were coming under desultory shell-fire from the Germans when a stray shell landed close to the dugout Shoemark was working on. A large shell fragment hit him in the back, and others broke his legs. Seriously wounded, he was taken to a nearby dressing station where eventually died of his wounds.

Back in Lake Bathurst it was reported that “a great shadow was cast over the village when the sad news of the death from wounds of Private Leslie Shoemark was received”. He was well known in the town and in nearby Goulburn as an amiable lad and a general favourite.

Shoemark was buried near the dressing station where he died, and a cross erected by two of his pals. In the fighting that followed his grave was lost, and he is now commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux memorial in France. He was 25 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. 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 Private Leslie Shoemark, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
Red Cross Wounded and Missing report by J. Little: https://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1058523--1-.PDF

“Mr G. Shoemark”, Braidwood Dispatch & Mining Journal, 30 August 1940, p. 2.

“A patriotic family”, Goulburn Penny Post, 27 July 1915, p. 2.

“Lake Bathurst (from our correspondent)”, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 13 March 1917, p. 1.