The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1355) Private Harry Fullford, 4th 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 Joanne Smeadly, the story for this day was on (1355) Private Harry Fullford, 4th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1355 Private Harry Fullford, 4th Battalion
DOD 23 December 1915,
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 26 December 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Harry Fullford.

Harry Fullford was born in 1886 to Ellen and Henry Fullford of Newcastle, New South Wales. He grew up around Coote’s Hill, and went to the local public school. In 1900 he was accused of stealing biscuit tins. Although he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods, the jury strongly recommended mercy, and so his six-month sentence was suspended. It seems this brush with the law was enough for Harry, and he had no further criminal convictions. He went on to undertake an apprenticeship at the government works at Honeysuckle Works, becoming a carriage builder. It was reported that he was “very popular amongst his fellow workmen”.

Fullford enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in late October 1914, just months after the outbreak of war. He was posted to the 4th Battalion, and left Australia for active service overseas in February 1915.

The 4th Battalion landed on Gallipoli on the afternoon of 25 April 1915, and Private Fullford was among the men towed ashore. He spent some time in hospital in Egypt after contracting enteritis. Though he returned to the peninsula, around the time of the evacuation he was once more hospitalised in Cairo. This time he was dangerously ill with meningitis.

Harry Fullford passed away two days before Christmas 1915. The hospital’s chaplain wrote to Fullford’s family:

all that we could possibly do to pay the past honours and respect to a brave man was done … His own comrades travelled some fifteen miles to act as pallbearers and firing party, to give him full military honours at the last. There can be no compensation, of course, for a loss like this, but
you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you and he, when duty called, have together made the sacrifice.

Today Private Harry Fullford is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt under the words “Fighting for us at home, he gained a hero’s grave”. He was 31 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in 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 Private Harry Fullford, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section