The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (244) Corporal Gilbert Goldie Anschau, 3rd 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (244) Corporal Gilbert Goldie Anschau, 3rd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

244 Corporal Gilbert Goldie Anschau, 3rd Battalion, AIF
KIA 5 May 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Gilbert Goldie Anschau.

Gilbert Anschau was born on 9 June 1887, the son of John and Ruth Anschau of Lismore, New South Wales. His father was a postmaster, and the family moved between his various positions at Woodburn, Lismore, Glen Innes and Hay. Around 1906 the family moved to Tamworth, where John Anschau worked as postmaster for seven years. Gilbert Anschau attended University School in Tamworth, and went on to work as a civil servant in Tamworth, initially in the District Works Office, and later in the Government Architect’s Office. In 1913 he was promoted to the Government Architect’s Office in Newcastle. It was reported that Anschau’s “musical capabilities were of no mean order, both as a pianist and an organist”, and he was also known as a composer.

Gilbert Anschau enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914. He left Australia in October 1914 with the first contingent, landing on Gallipoli with the 1st Field Ambulance shortly after the dawn landing on 25 April 1915.

Private Anschau thrived in the dangerous environment of the battlefield. He wrote to his sister, “this certainly is the life for me, and I am perfectly happy in the trenches, helping some poor beggar, with the bullets whizzing above and shrapnel bursting all around.” In another letter to his sister, Gilbert wrote, “I have had some miraculous escapes, but I have no fear and do all in my power to help my brave comrades here.”

Anschau attended the wounded from some of the early battles of the August offensive. He wrote: “I came to a position that is indescribable. I would like to brush away the sight from my memory. It was simply a charnel house—a veritable shambles. Dead, dead in lines three or four deep along the side, and all over the track, the wounded and dying intermixed. It was a Hell … I got to work and worked hard to relieve the wounded … Crack would go the bullets. My face was stung with the chips of pebbles or sand that splashed in my face from where the bullets tore in, in front of me.” Anschau worked tirelessly for hours, later writing, “I thanked God I had been able to have helped those wounded that day… The pressure of the poor wounded as they squeezed my arm for their thanks was the finest feeling and highest reward I could experience.”

Although two stretcher-bearers were shot while helping Anschau, and another was shot dead next to him, he remained unwounded.

In late August he became sick with enteric fever and was hospitalised on Gallipoli, and then evacuated to Malta. Lieutenant Grieves later wrote, “He proved himself one of the gamest of the game. There is not a man in his ambulance who does not swear by him. They say he does not know what fear means. He will be mentioned in despatches for conspicuous gallantry—anyway, he should be.”

After about a month, he suffered a serious relapse and was sent on to hospital in England. After three months in hospital in Netley, he was well enough to take six weeks’ leave to see Scotland and Ireland before sailing for Australia to complete his recuperation.

After several months in Australia, Anschau was determined to be fit enough to return to the war, sailing with reinforcements to the 3rd Battalion in October 1916. He spent the winter of 1916 to 1917 in England, joining his new battalion on the battlefields of northern France in mid-February 1917. At the time, the 3rd Battalion was following up the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, and it became involved in several short clashes with the enemy. Shortly afterwards, Anschau was wounded, but returned to the line after two days.

In early May 1917, and not long after Anschau’s promotion to corporal, the Australians attacked the Hindenburg Line for the second time near the French village of Bullecourt. On 5 May, Corporal Anschau was in the front line when he was badly wounded in the eye. Several people saw him with his eye hanging out, but he refused to go back for medical assistance. Not long afterwards, he left the trench, and while advancing was hit by an artillery shell and killed outright.

Despite the heavy shelling and the desperate situation, Corporal Anschau’s mates buried him near Maricourt Wood. However, his grave was lost in subsequent fighting. Despite many requests from Gilbert’s family, and even a visit to the front by his sister Barbara, his remains could not be found. Today he is commemorated on the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Gilbert Anschau was 29 years old.

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 Corporal Gilbert Goldie Anschau, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section