The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (462) Corporal Albert Christopher Julius Graffunder, 2nd 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (462) Corporal Albert Christopher Julius Graffunder, 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment, First World War.

462 Corporal Albert Christopher Julius Graffunder, 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment
KIA 14 May 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 12 October 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Albert Christopher Julius Graffunder.

Albert Graffunder was born on 21 July 1890 in Mackay, Queensland. His father, Julius, was born in Germany and had migrated to Australia as a boy. In 1883 he married Sylvia Beaton, and Albert was the fourth of their six children. Albert’s childhood seems to have been quite difficult. His father could be violent, and his mother unfaithful. Albert attended the local school, and went on to work as a farmer in Marian. He was also an enthusiastic member of the local squadron of light horse.

Albert enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force within weeks of the declaration of war in August 1914. He named neither of his parents as his next of kin, and in fact seems to have given the impression that his father was dead on attestation, although he did not die until 1930. Albert left a will naming two of his sisters as beneficiaries in case of his death.

Posted to the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Graffunder proved an able soldier and was quickly promoted to corporal. He underwent a period of training in Australia and then in Egypt. Following the Gallipoli dawn landings of 25 April 1915 more reinforcements were needed, and so it was decided to send in the light horse unmounted to support the infantry. The 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment disembarked near Anzac Cove on 12 May and was quickly drawn into action around Quinn’s Post.

Corporal Albert Graffunder was killed in action two days after arriving on Gallipoli.

In the absence of details of his death, rumours began to spread in Mackay that Graffunder had been a German spy. Later in 1915 Shoesmith Walter Henman, a friend of Graffunder and also a member of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, was repatriated to Australia as medically unfit. He was furious to hear the rumours, and made a speech about them at a recruitment rally in Mackay in October:

he could tell them that it was absolutely untrue and further, it took five bullets to kill [Corporal Graffunder]. He had the muscles of his arm blown away and was ordered by the Red Cross orderly to go back and have his arm dressed.

Henman added that Graffunder had refused, replying, “No, I am good enough for a few of [them] yet”, before turning back to the fight. As he did so, Graffunder was hit by fire from a Turkish machine-gun, and died quickly.

Henman may have exaggerated the report of Graffunder’s death, but he wanted people in Australia to know that “there never was a more loyal man to serve his King and country than Corporal Graffunder. He was a soldier from start to finish… he was an honest, straightforward man and no one who had fought as he had done could be accused of being a spy.”

Albert Graffunder was buried near Quinn’s Post by a nearby chaplain. He was 26 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died during 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 Corporal Albert Christopher Julius Graffunder, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section