The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2937) Private Raymond Lewis, 55th Battalion, 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 Jana Johnson , the story for this day was on (2937) Private Raymond Lewis, 55th Battalion, First World War.

2937 Private Raymond Lewis, 55th Battalion
KIA 19 October 1917
Story delivered 1 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Raymond Lewis.

Raymond Henry Lewis was born in 1898, one of four children of George and Elizabeth Lewis of Nimmitabel, New South Wales. After attending public school, Raymond worked as a clerk at the Nimmitabel Post Office.

In January 1916 a number of men from Nimmitabel enlisted in the Men from Snowy River Recruitment march that passed through the nearby town of Cooma. Raymond was not yet old enough to join the march, but he made his way to Goulburn in July, four months after his 18th birthday, and enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. After several months at the AIF training camp in town, in October 1916 he sailed for England with a reinforcement group for the 55th Battalion. After further training on Salisbury Plain, Raymond embarked for the Western Front in April 1917, joining the 55th Battalion in the line near Bullecourt. Having worked with telegraphy in the post office before the war, Raymond was posted as a signaller at D Company headquarters.

Raymond participated in his first major action at Bullecourt in early May, when as part of the 5th Division, the 55th Battalion was involved in defending ground gained from German troops in the Second Battle of Bullecourt. Following this, the focus of British operations shifted north into Belgium, where Australian troops played a pivotal role in breaking out of the Ypres Salient and advancing towards the high ground at Passchendaele. On 26 September 1917, the 55th Battalion fought a highly successful action at Polygon Wood, where they advanced behind a creeping barrage that, in the words of the Australian official historian, raged ahead of the battalion “like a Gippsland bushfire” as they went into battle that day.

After Polygon Wood, the men of the 55th rotated in and out of the front line following further successes at Broodseinde. They consolidated ground gained from the Germans by repairing trenches, improving concrete fortification, erecting barbed wire, and bringing up duckboards and other supplies in preparation for another advance towards the village of Passchendaele. They did this amid heavy German shell-fire, which was both sporadic and indiscriminate.

The 55th was occupying positions on Anzac Ridge east of Westhoek on 19 October 1917, when the battalion’s front was subjected to bombardment from the German guns. The battalion war diary relates that “the enemy shelled the whole area persistently throughout the day” – paying particular attention to pillboxes and duckboard tracks. Although it is not specified in any of the historical records, it is likely that Raymond was killed when a German artillery shell landed on the roof of a dugout and collapsed it on top of the eight men of the 55th Battalion who were sleeping inside.

Aged 20 at the time of his death, Raymond’s body was never recovered from the battalion’s position on Anzac Ridge. His name is recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial in nearby Ypres – one of the 6,187 Australians who died in Belgium and have no known grave.

Raymond Lewis’s 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.

His is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Raymond Henry Lewis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section