The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1342) Private Frederick Green, 13th Battalion, Frist 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 (1342) Private Frederick Green, 13th Battalion, Frist World War.

1342 Private Frederick Green, 13th Battalion
DOW 10 August 1915

Story delivered 13th May 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Frederick Green.

Frederick Benjamin Green was born in 1892, one of eight children of Henry and Harriet Green of North Sydney, New South Wales. After attending Neutral Bay Public School, Frederick worked as an apprentice plumber for the Sydney Harbour Trust. In the years before the war he was an active member of the militia and paraded part-time as a sergeant with D Company, St George’s English Rifle Regiment in the nearby suburb of Chatswood.

Green enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in November 1914, and after training at Liverpool Camp, left Australia with a reinforcement group for the 13th Battalion in February 1915. By the time he arrived in Egypt, Australian and New Zealand troops were preparing to make an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula as part of a wider British effort to force a passage through the Dardanelles.

Green landed on Gallipoli with the 13th Battalion at 3.30 am on the morning of 26 April 1915, coming ashore under fire at Anzac Cove and pushing inland to Pope’s Hill at the head of Monash Valley. From here, the 13th Battalion participated in the confused fighting in the thick scrub and rugged terrain for the next few days, as Australian and New Zealand forces failed to secure their objective of Third Ridge against mounting Turkish resistance.

In the weeks after the landing, the 13th Battalion continued to defend the area around Pope’s Hill and the nearby position of Quinn’s Post. When the battalion was relieved in mid-May, Frederick was evacuated to Egypt where he was admitted to the 1st Australian General Hospital at Heluan, suffering from what later was diagnosed as influenza. After a month of rest and recovery, he returned to the peninsula in June and rejoined the battalion in Reserve Gully as the men spent the following
weeks digging trenches and tunnels, terracing gullies, and unloading barges at Anzac Cove.

In August, the Australian and New Zealand troops fighting on Gallipoli were drawn into a major British offensive that endeavoured to break out of the stalemate that presided over the Gallipoli peninsula. On 7 August 1915, a number of simultaneous attacks were made at Anzac, with the main effort being made by Australian troops of the 4th Brigade in the foothills of Hill 971, while the New Zealanders assaulted the feature known as Chunuk Bair further to the north. After an arduous night’s march, the men of the 13th Battalion were engaged by Turkish troops who fired rifles and machine-guns into the 4th Brigade as it made its attack on Hill 971. The Turks made repeated counter-attacks over the following days in an effort to eject the Australians from the foothills, inflicting a heavy toll.

Frederick Green was mortally wounded in the fighting for Hill 971. He was evacuated by stretcher to the 39th Field Ambulance dressing station where he died the following day. Aged just 23 at the time of his death, Green was buried at the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery north of Anzac Cove.

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 Frederick Benjamin Green, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section