The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (394) Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis, 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, 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 Greg Kimball, the story for this day was on (394) Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis, 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, AIF, First World War.

394 Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis, 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, AIF
Died of illness 30 December 1916
Story delivered 18 December 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis.

Keith Jarvis was born in 1891 in Adelaide, the son of Arthur and Eliza Jane Jarvis. His family moved to Victor Harbor, on the south-east coast of South Australia, and Jarvis attended school there. He became a fisherman, and was well known in the district as a keen footballer. He was also a member of the town’s life boat crew, and spent a lot of his time on the water.

Jarvis enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1915. He paired knowledge of horses with his shipping experience and joined the 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train as a driver. After completing some training at camps in Melbourne, Jarvis sailed for Egypt in October 1915.

After further training in Egypt, he landed on Gallipoli in November 1915. The role of the Bridging Train included a wide variety of tasks. The men built and maintained piers and pontoon bridges, helped bring supplies ashore, controlled the supply of fresh water to front-line troops, built a light railway, and carried out repairs on Gallipoli. As a driver, Jarvis was in control of horse teams used to move heavy equipment.

With the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, allied troops began evacuating in December. Most of the Bridging Team were evacuated by mid-December, but about 50 men stayed behind to dismantle the pontoon bridges used to get the troops on to the boats were the last Australians to leave the peninsula at the end of the month.

The Bridging Team returned to Egypt, where they were stationed at Kubri on the Suez Canal. Here, the men operated pontoon bridges, allowing troops, horses, and equipment to cross the canal, but also allowing shipping through. In July, Jarvis was admitted to hospital sick, but returned to his unit within a few days.

He was again sent to hospital with an unknown malady in August, beginning a pattern of sickness that was to continue for the rest of the year. He suffered from bronchitis for much of September, and was again in hospital at the end of October. Towards the end of November, he was admitted to hospital a final time. His records show that he had been diagnosed with pernicious anaemia, an autoimmune disease, of which he died on 30 December 1916.

Keith Jarvis was buried in the Suez War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt, alongside more than 500 Commonwealth servicemen from the First World War.
Jarvis was a well-liked member of the unit. A comrade in the Bridging Team recorded in his diary that the day of the burial was a sad day for the men. In Victor Harbor, the local newspaper reported that news of his death had cast a gloom over the town and the district.

The Jarvis family sent four men to the war. Keith’s father, Sergeant Arthur Jarvis, served with the Remount Corps, and returned to Australia in 1916. His younger brother, Private Harold Jarvis, took part in the landing on Gallipoli with the 16th Battalion, before being invalided back to Australia in 1915. His youngest brother, Lance Corporal Eric Jarvis, served in the 10th Battalion and the 5th Division Signals Company, and earned the Military Medal with two Bars. He returned to Australia at the end of the war.

Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis 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 Able Bodied Driver Keith Jarvis, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section