The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (5442) Private Harold Beardmore Kaye, 15th Australian Infantry 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 Chirs Widenbar, the story for this day was on (5442) Private Harold Beardmore Kaye, 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

5442 Private Harold Beardmore Kaye, 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
Died of wounds 31 August 1916
Story delivered 17 December 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Harold Beardmore Kaye.

Harold Kaye was born on 3 April 1892, the eldest son of Sophia and Walter Kaye of Brisbane.

After Harold attended West End State School, the family moved slightly further west of the city to the suburb of Chelmer. Here Harold found work as a warehouse assistant, following in the footsteps of his father, who worked as a warehouseman and importer, and was an active member of the local Freemason’s lodge.

Harold Kaye enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in late August 1915 and was allotted to reinforcements to the 15th Battalion. Three-quarters of the battalion had been recruited as volunteers from Queensland, with the rest from Tasmania.

Kaye joined his unit in late May 1916, having travelled from Australia to the desert training camps of Egypt. It wasn’t long before he was on the move again, as his unit and the rest of the 4th Division were transferred to France to join the fighting on the Western Front. Entering the front line in the relatively quiet “Nursery Sector” near Armentieres where new troops were first introduced to trench warfare, the battalion undertook its first operation ¬– an unsuccessful raid – on 2 July.

About a month later, Kaye saw his first major action at Pozieres. The Australian 1st Division had captured the fortified village in late July. But with this Pozieres became the focus of the Somme fighting, and the worst place to be on earth. A series of retaliatory artillery bombardments and counter-attacks followed, surpassing anything previously endured by the Australians.

By the time that the 4th Division (including Kaye’s 15th Battalion) was called on to join the line, it had already suffered 1,000 casualties. It too endured a massive artillery bombardment, until on 7 August the last German attempt to retake Pozieres was defeated.

The fighting, however, was far from finished. A few days later, the 4th Division pressed the attack north towards Mouquet Farm. Although the farm buildings themselves had been reduced to rubble, strong stone cellars below ground had been incorporated into the German defences.

Determined German counter-attacks threw almost every advance back to its start line. Heavy rain turned the shell-torn earth into a quagmire in which the mud penetrated rifle and machine-gun mechanisms, and even clogged the firing pins of grenades.

The Australian official historian Charles Bean wrote of the battlefield conditions consisting of
flayed land, shell-hole bordering shell-hole, corpses of young men lying against the trench walls or in shell-holes; some—except for the dust settling on them—seeming to sleep; others torn in half; others rotting, swollen and discoloured.

He famously wrote that Pozieres Ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth”.

The Australians suffered as many casualties in six weeks around Pozieres as in the entire eight-month Gallipoli Campaign. Of 23,000 Australian casualties, 6,800 men were killed or died of wounds.

The British advance eventually bypassed the area leaving it an isolated outpost until it fell on 27 September 1916.

Private Kaye would not live to witness this Pyrrhic victory. He was wounded during fighting on 27 August. After being seen by a field ambulance with gunshot wounds to his chest and upper extremities, he died from his wounds at a casualty clearing station four days later.

Harold Kaye was 24 years old.

Today his remains lie at Puchevillers British Cemetery near Amiens.

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 Private Harold Beardmore Kaye, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section