The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX1419) Private Edward Wallace Proudfoot, 2/2nd Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second 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 Joanne Smedley, the story for this day was on (NX1419) Private Edward Wallace Proudfoot, 2/2nd Battalion, 2nd AIF, Second World War.

NX1419 Private Edward Wallace Proudfoot, 2/2nd Battalion, 2nd AIF
DOW 4 January 1941
Photograph: P09639.001

Story delivered 3 January 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Edward Wallace Proudfoot.

The son of Hector and Leah Proudfoot, Edward “Teddy” or “Ted” Proudfoot was born in Scone, in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, on 19 July 1919. Known as “Peace Day”, this marked the celebration across the British Commonwealth of the end of the Great War.

The Proudfoot family was well known in Scone, and in 1937 Ted Proudfoot joined the Railway Department as a railway porter. He quickly impressed his colleagues with his “manly bearing and courteous demeanour”, and he was recognised as a popular and ambitious officer.

In September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany following the latter’s invasion of Poland. Australia was also at war. Proudfoot was among the state’s earliest volunteers, and joined the newly raised Australian Imperial Force on 2 November. Three of his brothers would also enlist in the forces, with two in the army and one in the air force, and his sister enlisted as a nursing Volunteer Aid Detachment.

Proudfoot was posted to the newly raised 2/2nd Battalion of the 6th Division. After some rudimentary training, in January 1940 the division sailed for the Middle East. The Australians spent the rest of the year training in Palestine before moving to Egypt. By now Fascist Italy had joined the war on the side of Germany, and the Australian 6th Division was to lead the British advance into the Italian colony of Libya.

On 3 January 1941 the 6th Division attacked the Italian fortress of Bardia. This was the first battle fought by the AIF in the Second World War, and it was a resounding victory. Two days later the fortress had been captured and some 40,000 Italians were taken prisoner. More than 100 Australians were killed and more than 300 were wounded.

Proudfoot was among the dead. In a letter home, another soldier from Scone described how when he last saw Proudfoot they had “just come through the wire” in the opening assault on Bardia, and Proudfoot “gave me a coo-ee, and I waved and shouted some rude remark”. Soon afterwards Proudfoot was hit in the head with shrapnel from an artillery shell. Another soldier from Scone, also wounded by the shell, carried Proudfoot to safety.

Proudfoot died in hospital the following day, and was buried in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery in Egypt. He was 21 years old.

When news of his death was reported to his parents, the Scone Sub-branch of the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia passed a motion to fly the Australian flags at half-mast outside the Soldiers’ Memorial School of Arts. Proudfoot was among the first men from Scone to enlist, and the area’s first fatality.

Less than 18 months later Hector and Leah Proudfoot were informed that their second son, Squadron Leader Samuel Proudfoot, had been killed serving in the air force.

Ted Proudfoot’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with his older brother and some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second 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 Edward Wallace Proudfoot, and all those Australians – as well as our Allies and brothers in arms – who gave their lives in the hope for a better world.
Dr Karl James

Senior Historian, Military History Section