The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (66) Private Arthur Walter “John” Brown, 6th 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (66) Private Arthur Walter “John” Brown, 6th Battalion, AIF, World War.

66 Private Arthur Walter “John” Brown, 6th Battalion, AIF
KIA 25 April 1915
Photograph: P06424.008 (kneeling at front)

Story delivered 17 April 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Arthur Walter Brown, who died during the First World War.

Known as “John”, Brown was born in 1891 in Sale, Victoria, the youngest child and only son of Arthur and Minnie Brown. He moved to Melbourne, where he met and married Mary McGrath in 1913. At 23 John was a father working as a labourer when he enlisted in the AIF in August 1914, just a few weeks after the declaration of war.

John was assigned as a private to the 6th Battalion. He left Melbourne with his battalion in October on HMAT Hororata and arrived in Egypt that December. After several months of training, the 6th Battalion was sent to the Dardanelles in preparation for its landing on the Gallipoli peninsula.

The 6th reached Gallipoli in the morning of 25 April as part of the second wave of landings. Under shrapnel fire, the battalion moved inland from the beach to take part in an advance on Bolton’s Ridge.

John was killed at some point between the arrival on Gallipoli and the push inland. The exact particulars of his death are unknown. He was first listed as missing, but in April 1916, nearly a year after he disappeared, a court of inquiry found that John had been killed in action on 25 April 1915.

Today John Brown is commemorated at the Lone Pine memorial in the Lone Pine Cemetery on the Gallipoli peninsula. It commemorates more than 4,900 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the vicinity and whose graves, like John’s, remain unknown.

His 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. His photograph is displayed beside the Pool of Reflection; John is kneeling at the front with his hat in hand.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Arthur Walter “John” Brown, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Kate Ariotti
Historian, Military History Section

Note: While this casualty appears on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour as John Brown, his real name according to his service record is Arthur Walter Brown

Sources:
www.ancestry.com

Australian War Memorial Embarkation Roll

National Archives of Australia, John Brown, service record, p. 14.

National Archives of Australia, John Brown, attestation papers.

National Archives of Australia, John Brown, “Report of Death of a Soldier”.

Chris Roberts, The landing at Anzac: 1915, Big Sky Publishing, Newport, New South Wales, 2013, p. 108.
http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/78500/LONE%20PINE%20MEMORIAL