The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (222) Private Harold Mowatt Belstead, 28th 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 Sharon Bown, the story for this day was on (222) Private Harold Mowatt Belstead, 28th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

222 Private Harold Mowatt Belstead, 28th Battalion, AIF
DOW 25 April 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Harold Mowatt Belstead.

Harold Belstead was born in 1892 in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, the eldest of three children born to George and Agnes Belstead. When Belstead was a child the family moved to Mount Hawthorn in Perth, where he attended a local state school. He later worked as a letter carrier.

Belstead enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 March 1915. His younger brother George signed up a week later, and the two brothers served together in the newly formed 28th Infantry Battalion.

The Belstead brothers sailed from Fremantle in June 1915, and after a brief period of training in Egypt landed with their battalion on Gallipoli. They had been in the trenches there for less than a month when George Belstead was shot in the knee in an area of the battlefield known as the “Apex”. He was evacuated to hospital, and eventually medically discharged. He would take no further part in the Great War.

Harold Belstead stayed on Gallipoli, and served on the peninsula until December 1915, when he evacuated with the rest of the Australian forces for Egypt.

Belstead trained with his unit in Egypt until March 1916, when they sailed for France and the war on the Western Front. Soon after arriving in Marseilles they travelled to northern France, near Armentières.

Belstead and the 28th Battalion took part in their first major action in the battle of Pozières, north of the River Somme. In this battle, Australian troops of the 1st Division had been involved in heavy fighting since 23 July, and in five days suffered over 5,200 casualties. The Australian 2nd Division, of which Belstead’s unit was part, joined the battle on 28 July, and were soon to suffered similar terrible losses.

On the night of 28/29 July 1916, Australian forces lay a heavy bombardment on the German lines hoping to damage their defences, especially the thick barbed wire entanglements that crossed no man’s land. As the Australian troops waited in preparation for their advance, they came under heavy German high explosive and shrapnel retaliatory fire, and suffered heavy casualties.

Shortly after midnight, Belstead and the 28th Battalion climbed out of their trenches onto the battlefield and advanced on the German trenches in the face of heavy artillery, rifle, and machine-gun fire. As the men crossed no man’s land, they found that their artillery fire had failed to destroy the German barbed wire defences. In heavy enemy fire they attempted to find ways around and cut through the wire, but to no avail. They were eventually ordered to withdraw. The Australian 2nd Division suffered 2,000 casualties on this night alone.

Belstead survived Pozières, and spent the rest of the year serving in France and Belgium enduring the terrible conditions of the coldest winter in living memory.

On 25 April 1917, two years after Australian forces first landed on Gallipoli, the 28th Battalion was in the process of being relieved from duty in support trenches, when Belstead was struck by enemy machine-gun fire. He received severe wounds to his left leg, and was taken to a nearby casualty clearing station for treatment. He died from his wounds later that day.

He was 24 years old.

He is buried in the Grevillers British Cemetery in France, where over 2,100 soldiers of the First World War are now commemorated. His gravestone is carved with the words: “In memory of our dear son, ever remembered by his parents in Australia”.

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

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section