The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2738) Private James Dick, 15th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (2738) Private James Dick, 15th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2738 Private James Dick, 15th Battalion, AIF
KIA 5 December 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private James Dick.

James Dick was born to James and Mary Dick about 1890 in Grangemouth, a busy port town in the Central Belt of Scotland.

He grew up here, attending Grange Public School. At the age of 21, James Dick left his family and immigrated to Australia. For a time he worked as a farmer in the Clarence Valley in New South Wales. But on 10 August 1915, Dick was in Brisbane, enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force.

He was assigned to the 9th reinforcements to 15th Battalion, which was made up of volunteers from Queensland and Tasmania. Along with the the 13th, 14th, and 16th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade, commanded by Colonel John Monash.

On 1 September 1915, barely three weeks after enlisting, Dick left Australia aboard the troopship Ayrshire. Arriving in Egypt in late October, by mid-November he’d joined the 15th Battalion on the Gallipoli Peninsula at Anzac.

After the failure of the August 1915 offensives, the troops on Gallipoli had few options but to dig in and prepare for a difficult winter. The British War Cabinet had begun to consider the possibility of withdrawal in September, but it wasn’t until after months of debate and delay that evacuation of Anzac began on the night of 8 December.

This was too late for Private James Dick, who had been killed in action three days earlier, on the 5th of December, and buried that same day at the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery.

He was 25 years old
While there are no records of the details of Dick’s death or his family’s reaction to it, we can imagine their grief at learning that their son, who for so many years was far away on the other side of the world, had died in a foreign land.

It took some time before Dick’s father, now living in Orkney in the Northern Isles of Scotland, received his son’s personal belongings. They had mistakenly sent to a grieving family in Queensland before being delivered to the correct address. When they did arrive, the only physical remnants of James Dick’s service in the Australian Imperial Force were a hair brush and a copy of the New Testament.

James Dick’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.

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

Duncan Beard
Editor, Military History Section