The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1634) Private Thomas Sewell, 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (1634) Private Thomas Sewell, 45th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1634 Private Thomas Sewell, 45th Battalion, AIF
DOW 12 June 1917
Story delivered 12 January 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Thomas Frederick Sewell.

Thomas Sewell was born in 1896, one of 12 children of Henry and Elizabeth Sewell of Sewell Creek, near Rockley in the New South Wales Central Tablelands. He attended Mount Davis Primary School, paraded with the senior cadets, and later worked as a coal miner at Portland near Lithgow.

Sewell enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1916, and after a period of training at Bathurst, embarked for England with a reinforcement group for the 45th Battalion. Arriving in England, he underwent more training on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire before embarking for France in September 1916. There he joined the 45th Battalion in the quiet St Eloi sector in Belgium as the battalion rested after several weeks fighting at Pozières and Mouquet Farm.

After several weeks in Belgium, the 45th Battalion returned to the Somme, where it spent the following winter holding positions between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt. After enduring was the coldest winter in France for nearly 40 years, the 45th followed up the German withdrawal throughout February and March until it reached the Hindenburg Line in early April. Thomas and the rest the 45th Battalion were held in reserve during the 4th Division’s costly and unsuccessful attempt to breach the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt on 11 April – which resulted in over 3,000 Australian casualties.

By May, the focus of British operations had shifted north into Belgium, as part of an effort to break out of the Ypres Salient and to capture the German submarine pens along the Belgian coastline. This operation would involve capturing the Messines Ridge, which dominated the high ground overlooking Ypres from the south-west.

The 45th Battalion formed part of the 4th Division’s attack at Messines on 6 June 1917, during which it captured a position known as Owl Trench. Over the following days, the battalion repelled successive waves of German counter-attacks amid heavy shell-fire from enemy artillery.

The 45th Battalion suffered over 500 casualties in less than a week of fighting. Among them was Private Thomas Sewell, who was shot in the chest and suffered serious wounds to his face and hands as the battalion was being relieved from the front line on the night of 11 June. Stretcher bearers carried him to a nearby casualty clearance station, where he succumbed to his wounds the following day. Aged 21 at the time of his death, Sewell was buried at the Bailleul Communal Cemetery. His parents selected a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer to appear as the epitaph on his headstone: “Thy will be done”.

Thomas Sewell 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 Private Thomas Sewell, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section