The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2658) Private Edwin Sidney Jones, 45th 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 (2658) Private Edwin Sidney Jones, 45th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2658 Private Edwin Sidney Jones, 45th Battalion, AIF
KIA 12 June 1917

Story delivered 12 June 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Edwin Sidney Jones.

Edwin Jones was born on 24 January 1893, one of eight children born to Edwin and Annie Jones of Newtown, Sydney. Before the war, Edwin worked as a railway signalman and lived in Enfield, in Sydney’s inner west, with his wife Isabella Veronica. The couple had two children, Edwin Sidney and Vera May.

Edwin enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in May 1916 and trained at Cootamundra, New South Wales. In October 1916 he embarked from Sydney for Europe and the war on the Western Front. He reached England in November and sailed for France in January, arriving during the terrible winter of 1916 to 1917. He served with the 45th Battalion of the 4th Australian Division.

Edwin spent the next three months enduring the hardships and drudgery of trench warfare. His battalion spent their time either manning front-line trenches under intermittent enemy artillery and machine-gun fire, or resting and training behind the front. The hardships caused by enemy action, and the terrible conditions, took their toll, and in March 1917 Edwin was admitted to hospital with septic traumatic abrasions to his left foot. This was a serious injury that kept him in field hospitals for nearly two months. He rejoined his unit on 5 May in the Flanders region of Belgium. It was here that he would have his first experience of a major battle.

In June, Allied forces were tasked with capturing a ridge occupied by the Germans at Messines. The high ground gave the Germans an excellent position to fire on allied positions. Allied forces bombarded the German position with high explosive artillery for seven days until 7 June, when they detonated nearly half a million kilograms of explosives in tunnels under German lines. In a daring operation, the 19 mines had taken Australian, Canadian and British miners and tunnellers two years to complete.

The explosion was devastating to the German positions. By 5.30 in the morning, allied forces occupied the ridge virtually unopposed. The 4th Australian Division, of which Edwin was part, were reinforcements in this battle, and were used to hold and extend gains taken early in the day. Edwin and the 45th Battalion took part in extremely heavy fighting as they held their sector of the front for three days. They were among the first Australians to encounter reinforced concrete German machine-gun positions that would later come to be known as “pillboxes”. Still, they managed to hold an extended section of the front, despite heavy German artillery bombardment and counter-attacks. Although it was a successful operation, Australian forces suffered nearly 6,800 casualties at Messines. Over 500 of them came from Edwin’s 45th Battalion.

On the night of 7 June, the first day of the battle, Edwin and one of his comrades, Lieutenant Howard, were manning a sector of the front together. Edwin talked of his family and showed Howard photographs of his young children. On that same night, Howard was buried under earth after a nearby artillery explosion. Edwin saved his life by digging him out.

On 12 June, 100 years ago today, Edwin and his fellow soldiers from the 45th Battalion were moving behind the lines for relief when they stopped for a brief rest in a reserve trench. The soldiers started a game of two-up to pass the time, but the game was interrupted when a German artillery shell exploded among them. Edwin was struck by a fragment of shell that pierced his back and shoulder. He was attended by a nearby medical officer, but died shortly afterwards. He was 24 years old. He is buried at the Kandahar Farm Cemetery Extension near Messines, along with over 400 other fallen Commonwealth soldiers.

Edwin’s grieving wife Isabella, now left with their two young children, devoted great energy in trying to find out the particulars and circumstances of her husband’s death. In 1918 she received a package of her husband’s possessions from the front. Among them were a pocket book, some coins, and some photos. In all likelihood, these photos were the same photos of their children that Edwin had shown to his friend Howard only days before his death.

Private Edwin Sidney Jones 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 Edwin Sidney Jones, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.