The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (455) Private Charles Rule MM, 10th 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (455) Private Charles Rule MM, 10th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

455 Private Charles Rule MM, 10th Battalion, AIF
KIA 15 April 1917

Story delivered 15 April 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Charles Rule.

Charles Rule was born in January 1893 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, to Charles and Mary Rule.

After growing up in Newcastle and attending the local public school, at the age of 19, Rule emigrated to Australia with his parents and brother Alf.

The family settled in Adelaide, where Rule was working as a steward when the First World War began. He was amongst the first to enlist in the newly-raised 10th Battalion at Morphettville Racecourse on 20 August 1914.

Two months of training followed before Rule and the 10th Battalion left Adelaide aboard the transport ship Ascanius. After a stop at Fremantle, where several companies of the 11th Battalion were embarked, Ascanius joined the Australian Imperial Force’s first convoy.

The first convoy began disembarking in Alexandria in mid-December. Several months of hard training in the desert followed, but there were also frequent periods of leave for the men to explore Cairo and its surrounds.

The 3rd Brigade, including the 10th Battalion, sailed to Lemnos in preparation for the Gallipoli campaign in early March 1915. And just over a month later, in the early hours of 25 April 1915, the men of the 10th Battalion rowed silently towards the Turkish shore at what would become known as Anzac Cove. The war diary of the battalion records:

no sound was heard, except the splash of the oars; we thought that our landing was to be effected quite unopposed, but when our boats were within about 30 yards of the beach a rifle was fired from the hill in front of us above the beach, right in front of where we were heading for. Almost immediately heavy rifle and machine gun fire was opened upon us.

The men finished rowing hurriedly to the shore and dashed for the heights above the beach. The fighting which took place inland quickly became confused.

During the afternoon, Rule accompanied Captain George Redburg on a forward reconnaissance. Soon after, Redburg was shot in both legs and was unable to walk. Rule assisted his officer into cover and dressed Redburg’s wounds before helping him over around 50 yards of open ground, shielding him with his own body. The two men were under heavy machine-gun and shrapnel fire, but were not hit. During the journey to the beach Rule was also seen to engage at least one Turkish sniper.

For this action, Rule was retrospectively awarded a Military Medal, after this award was instituted in March 1916.

Rule served on Gallipoli until the 10th Battalion was evacuated in November, returning to Egypt at the end of December. He was hospitalised in mid-January 1916 after developing a skin condition, but was released from hospital in late March, just in time to re-join his battalion as it sailed for France.

After a brief period in an area dubbed “the Nursery Sector” – a relatively quiet part of the front line near Armentières where troops were familiarised with trench warfare – the 10th Battalion was sent south where it took part in the capture of Pozières on 23 July.

During the day, Rule was hit in the back by shrapnel. He was evacuated to England for surgery and convalescence, and there learned that he had been awarded the Military Medal.

Rule returned to France in early February 1917 and re-joined his battalion.

In the early hours of 15 April, the German army launched a surprise attack on the thinly-held Australian positions at Lagnicourt. A Company of the 10th Battalion, which had been sent to support the 11th Battalion, came under heavy German artillery fire, followed by an infantry attack which overran parts of the 11th Battalion’s positions. During the fighting, Private Charles Rule was killed.

He was 24 years old.

His body was never recovered, and today his name is listed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux with more than 10,700 other Australians who died in France during the First World War and have no known grave.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Charles Rule MM, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section