The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4610) Private Alfred Elfverson, 47th Battalion4610 Private Alfred Elfverson, 47th 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (4610) Private Alfred Elfverson, 47th Battalion4610 Private Alfred Elfverson, 47th Battalion, First World War.

4610 Private Alfred Elfverson, 47th Battalion
KIA 13 February 1917

Story delivered 20 June 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Alfred Elfverson.

Alfred Elfverson was born in 1896, one of eight children born to Alexander and Fannie Elfverson of Gympie in Queensland. After attending Monkland State School, Alfred worked as a miner in the area’s prosperous gold fields. His father died following a short illness in 1913, and as the eldest son, Alfred would have worked to support his widowed mother and siblings.

Perhaps motivated by the prospect of a steady income, Alfred enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in October 1915. After a period of training in Brisbane, he embarked for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 9th Battalion in January 1916. By then, the Gallipoli campaign had ended and the AIF was undergoing a period of major restructure and reorganisation in preparation for its departure for the fighting on the Western Front. Alfred was transferred to the newly-raised 47th Battalion and in June 1916 sailed for France.

Forming part of the 4th Division, the 47th Battalion spent several weeks in the relatively quiet “nursery sector” outside the town of Armentieres on the Franco-Belgian border, learning the rigours and routine of fighting on the Western Front. Here the Australians carried out nightly patrols of no man’s land and conducted trench raids against German positions. In early July, the 4th Division was transferred south to take part in the British offensive raging on the Somme. Alfred fought his first major action of the Great War at Pozieres on the night of 4 August 1916, and participated in the bitter fighting for nearby Mouquet Farm over the following weeks.

When the Australians were relieved from Pozieres in early September, they were sent north to the Ypres sector to recoup their losses and take on reinforcements in preparation for the following winter. Alfred was hospitalised around this time with an infection which saw him evacuated to a hospital behind the lines in France. After several weeks period of rest and recovery he returned to the battalion. By then it was early November, and the 47th was preparing to return to the Somme.

The Battle of the Somme had ended by the time Alfred returned, but the Australians spent the following months holding positions in between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt, areas that had been raked by shell-fire during the fighting. That winter was the coldest France had seen in over 40 years, and the mud, rain, and frostbite proved greater enemies that the Imperial German Army.

The 47th Battalion moved to Gueudecourt in January, taking front line position near Bull’s Road where, according to the battalion’s war diary, conditions were “extremely arduous and trying”. Heavy snow, freezing temperatures, and mud caused most of the battalion’s casualties during that time. Salvage teams regularly went out into no man’s land at night to collect unused ordnance, discarded rifles, and other reusable items.

While is not mentioned in his service record, or in the battalion’s war diary, it is suspected that Alfred was killed whilst attached to one such salvage team that sustained casualties on 13 February 1917.

He was buried at nearby Bulls Road Cemetery. An epitaph penned by his grieving mother appears on his headstone:

His Name is Written in Letters Of Love
On the Hearts left at Home.

Alfred Elfverson was 20 years old.

Less than a week after his death, his older sister, Florence, died of illness in Gympie. Having first lost her husband to sickness on the Gympie goldfields, Fannie Elfverson was forced to mourn the loss of two of her children, in two very difference circumstances, within the same week.

Alfred Elfverson 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 Alfred Elfverson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section