The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (208) Corporal William Matthew O’Grady Young, 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment, 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 (208) Corporal William Matthew O’Grady Young, 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, First World War.

208 Corporal William Matthew O’Grady Young, 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF
Accidentally killed 28 December 1915
Story delivered 5 December 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal William Matthew O’Grady Young.

William Young was born in 1872 to James and Grace Young in Castlerea, Ireland. He studied at Wimborne School in England before attending Trinity College in Dublin.

When war broke out between the British Empire and the two Boer republics in South Africa at the end of the nineteenth century, Young volunteered for service. He enlisted in the Irish Imperial Yeomanry, a cavalry unit, and served with this unit for over a year. When that unit was disbanded, he joined the South African Constabulary, under its first inspector-general, Major General Robert Baden-Powell. The Constabulary was raised as a mounted police force, but the war continued much longer than the British expected, and Young saw action as part of this unit as well. He remained in the Constabulary for six and a half years, well after peace had been declared.

When he left the Constabulary, Young decided to migrate to Australia, arriving in his mid-thirties in 1907. He became a farmer at Boggabri in northern New South Wales. When Britain declared war in 1914, he was keen to serve again, and was one of the first to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force in October.

With his extensive experience in mounted military units, Young joined the 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment. He completed some brief training in New South Wales before sailing to Egypt on the transport ship Ayrshire in late December.

Young and the other soldiers of the 7th Light Horse arrived at Alexandria early in February 1915, and began training at the Australian army camp in Heliopolis, near Cairo.

Mounted infantry were unsuitable for the steep, rocky terrain of the Gallipoli peninsula, so the men of the 7th Light Horse did not take part in the initial landings in April. In May, they landed on the peninsula without their horses and reinforced the infantry units already in position. During August, Young was wounded twice on Gallipoli. His wounds were not serious, however, and he recovered at the front.

By the end of 1915, it was clear that the Dardanelles campaign had failed. The members of the 7th Light Horse were evacuated in early December and returned to Cairo in preparation for future operations against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

At about 7:15 in the morning on 28 December 1915, the day after Young had arrived in Egypt, a single shot was heard at Racecourse Camp in Heliopolis. It had been accidentally fired by a Light Horse soldier who was emptying his rifle of ammunition. The bullet killed Young, and another Light Horseman, Trooper Hubert Rigby. Young was 43 years old.

Young was buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt, where his remains now lie alongside more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen from the First World War.

Survived by his brother and sister in Ireland, his grieving family left the following inscription on his headstone: “Yes I have loved thee with an everlasting love”.

Corporal William Matthew O’Grady Young 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 William Matthew O’Grady Young, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section