The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1015) Corporal David Thomas Coles, 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery, 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 (1015) Corporal David Thomas Coles, 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery, AIF, First World War.

1015 Corporal David Thomas Coles, 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery, AIF
KIA 23 June 1917
Story delivered 18 March 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal David Thomas Coles.

David Coles was born on 6 June 1885 in Jamestown, South Australia, one of nine children born to James and Jane Coles. His father was an English immigrant who, after moving around the mid-north of South Australia, built a home in Port Pirie in 1893. While James went to work in the smelters at Pirie, David was educated at the Solomontown School before following in his father’s footsteps. At the Broken Hill Associated Smelters, it was reported, “he was highly respected by his fellow workers”. Coles later moved in with a sister who lived near Port Adelaide, and worked as an engine driver on the railways.

David Coles enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in December 1915. He was originally posted to the 43rd Battalion, undergoing a period of training in Australia during which he was promoted to lance corporal. He left Australia for active service overseas in June 1916. In September of that year he was promoted to corporal and transferred to the light trench mortar batteries. A little over a month later, he received word that his mother had died at home in Port Pirie.

Corporal Coles continued training with the trench mortars for some time, including specialist training in Belgium in early 1917, before joining his unit at the front. Within two months he was killed in action. Very little is known of what happened to Corporal Coles. It almost certainly occurred during the operation to capture Messines Ridge, but few records remain of either the activity of his unit or of the exact manner of his death.

Today David Coles is buried in Messines Ridge British Cemetery, with no epitaph. He was 32 years old.

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 Corporal David Thomas Coles, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section