The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1047) Sergeant John Storer, 2nd Pioneer 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 Dennis Stockman, the story for this day was on (1047) Sergeant John Storer, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1047 Sergeant John Storer, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, AIF
KIA 5 October 1918

Story delivered 23 December 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private John Reginald Storer.

John Storer was born in 1895, one of six children born to William and Alice Storer of the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt. Known to his family and friends as “Jack”, he attended Leichhardt State Primary School before completing an engineering apprenticeship and working as a fitter and turner. Storer spent four years in the Citizens Military Forces and had manned part of Sydney’s coastal defences at South Head with the 33rd Engineer Regiment.

Storer enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915, and after two months’ training at Liverpool Military Camp embarked for Egypt as an original member of the 19th Battalion. Before sailing for the Dardanelles, he was temporarily transferred to the 4th Field Company Engineers, a unit that carried out a range of construction tasks, including digging tunnels, mines and trenches, building dugouts and observation posts, laying track for light railway networks, and repairing roads and bridges. Landing on Gallipoli in September, Storer spent the following months improving the positions at Anzac before Australian and New Zealand forces withdrew in late December.

On returning to Egypt, Storer went back to the 19th Battalion and spent the following months training in preparation for deployment to the Western Front. Sailing for France in March 1916, the 19th Battalion was among the first Australian units to see combat, manning positions in the relatively quiet area near Armentières. The battalion then moved south to the Somme, where it fought its first major action in a costly and unsuccessful attack on German positions east of the village of Pozières on 27 July 1916.

Perhaps due to the heavy casualties incurred throughout the 2nd Division, Storer was transferred to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion. His new unit carried out many of the same tasks as the Field Company
Engineers, but they were lighter and more mobile, and could be employed as infantry when required.

Storer excelled as a pioneer. After Pozières, when the battalion manned forward positions at Flers, he was promoted to corporal. He participated in the advance that followed up on the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, and after the fighting at Bullecourt in May was recognised for his “untiring rigour” in encouraging his men while they were under heavy German artillery and machine-gun fire. Promoted to sergeant in August that year, he participated in the fighting near Ypres when the focus of British operations shifted north into Belgium.

In September, a German aircraft dropped a bomb on Storer’s platoon as they stopped for a drink at a Comforts Fund stall on the Menin Road. He was evacuated to England suffering from shrapnel wounds to his leg, and spent the following weeks undergoing treatment and recovery before returning to Belgium in December 1917.

In March 1918, the Germans launched their Spring Offensive and overran the British defences, breaking the deadlock of trench warfare. The Australians were spared this onslaught, but were sent south from their winter billets in Belgium to blunt the German drive towards the city of Amiens. Near Villers-Bretonneux, Storer displayed “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty” during a German gas bombardment that fell among his platoon. Though badly shaken, he treated his men as best he could and helped minimise the effects of the poisonous gas. On 8 August 1918, on the day the Allies launched their counter-offensive against the German Army, Storer “showed great determination, coolness and devotion to duty” while reconnoitring the road, during which he came under intense German machine-gun and artillery fire. Later that day he “showed absolute disregard for danger” while under fire by keeping his men working to allow Australian artillery to move forward with the highly successful infantry advance.

Storer had developed into a capable, reliable, and highly experienced soldier who could get the job done in extremely adverse conditions. On the morning of 5 October 1918, Australian troops of the 6th Brigade,

supported by the 2nd Division Pioneers, assaulted and captured the German-occupied town of Montbrehain in what was the last Australian action of the First World War.
In the midst of the fighting, a German artillery shell landed among Storer’s platoon, killing him and four others instantly.

John Storer was just 22 years old.

When the action was over, he was buried in a makeshift communal grave on the outskirts of the village, but his body was never formally identified. While it is likely that John Storer now rests under a headstone marked with “Known Unto God” in one of the four cemeteries at Montbrehain, he is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, along with more than 10,000 Australians killed in France who have no known grave.

John’s death had a tremendous impact on the Storer family. John’s brother, Lieutenant William Storer, had been killed near Gueudecourt in February 1917, and now John had died in the last Australian action of the war.

In 1919, John Storer was posthumously awarded the Military Medal and bar for his actions at Villers-Bretonneux and Amiens. A small epitaph penned by his family had earlier appeared in the newspaper: “An Anzac at Rest”.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 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 Sergeant John Storer, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section