The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX53349) Gunner Edward Francis “Ted” Perry-Circuitt, 2/15th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (NX53349) Gunner Edward Francis “Ted” Perry-Circuitt, 2/15th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, Second World War.

NX53349 Gunner Edward Francis “Ted” Perry-Circuitt, 2/15th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery
DOD 17 April 1945
Photograph: P02467.643

Story delivered 27 May 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Edward Francis Perry-Circuitt.

Edward Perry-Circuitt was born on 9 March 1905 in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, to George and Ethel Perry-Circuitt. He was the third of four children born to the couple.

Known as Ted, he grew up on Uabba Station at Lake Cargeligo. In 1916 he was sent to boarding school at the King’s School, where he completed both his primary and secondary education.

After school, Perry-Circuitt went jackerooing and worked on a property in the Riverina known as Toganmain. He returned to Uabba Station, which his father managed as a part-owner. The latter eventually retired and Perry-Circuitt eventually took over the management of the station. He never married, and prior to the outbreak of the Second World War he was working as a property manager on Uabba Station at Lake Cargeligo in New South Wales.

Perry-Circuitt passed his army medical test in June 1940 and was called up for service in the Second Australian Imperial Force that August. Following his initial training, he was posted to the 2/15th Field Regiment as a gunner and embarked with his unit at the end of July.

Arriving in Singapore in early August, the 2/15th Field Regiment had moved into Malaya by December, and the Japanese soon began their invasion. It wasn’t until January that the regiment went into action, taking part in the fighting at Gemas and Muar, and around Ayer Hitam and the Namazie Estate. The regiment fired thousands of rounds during the withdrawal and suffered numerous casualties as it engaged the Japanese over open sights.

When Singapore fell on 15 February 1942 Perry-Circuitt became a prisoner of the Japanese. He was initially interred at Changi, but it wasn’t long before he and his mates were being sent out on work parties to camps along the Burma-Thailand Railway, Borneo, and elsewhere.

By 1945 Perry-Circuitt had been transferred to Sandakan, where he was part of a group of prisoners put to work constructing an airfield. By this time the years of mistreatment by his captors, poor food, and tropical diseases had taken their toll on him. On 17 April 1945 he died following a bout of malaria. He was 40 years old.

He was buried in the Sandakan No. 2 Camp cemetery. His remains were later lost, and today he is commemorated on panel 4 of the Labuan Memorial, which lists the names of those who died while prisoners of war but have no known grave. In 1948, three years after his death, a letter from Perry-Circuitt finally found its way to one of his sisters.

Gunner Perry-Circuitt’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 other 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 Gunner Edward Francis “Ted” Perry-Circuitt, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section