The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3471) Private Albert James Brinsmead, 57th 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (3471) Private Albert James Brinsmead, 57th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3471 Private Albert James Brinsmead, 57th Battalion, AIF
KIA 27 November 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Albert James Brinsmead.

Albert Brinsmead, more familiarly known as “Jim”, was born in 1895 to Hugh and Mary Brinsmead of Bendigo, Victoria. His father worked as a miner on the goldfields for 30 years.
Jim had five brothers and three sisters, and was educated at the Marist Brothers’ College in Bendigo with some, if not all of his brothers. In 1901 his older brother Alfred drowned in a dam while swimming with a third brother, Hughie. Seven years later, Jim’s father died of what was described as “a miner’s complaint”, leaving Mary a widow with five sons and three daughters. After completing his education, Jim went on to work on the battery of the Great Extended Hustler’s Mine at Sandhurst.

Jim Brinsmead enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in July 1915, some five months after his older brother Hugh. He underwent a period of training in Australia before leaving for active service overseas with reinforcements to the 21st Battalion. Private Brinsmead’s service record is not clear on whether or not he reached Gallipoli, but if he did, it would have been at the very end of the campaign. By that time his brother Hugh, serving with the 23rd Battalion, had been sent to hospital on Malta with bomb wounds to his hand.

The AIF began 1916 back in the Egyptian desert, where it underwent a period of expansion and reorganisation. As part of this process, Jim Brinsmead was transferred to the 57th Battalion. One of the last battalions to leave Egypt, the 57th was one of the first to be committed to battle. On 19 July 1916, it took part in the battle of Fromelles, one of the costliest disasters in Australian military history. The battalion was spared heavy casualties as it played a supporting role during the attack, but the men of the 57th Battalion played a critical role in defending the line in the following days. Jim Brinsmead and his battalion would remain in and around Fromelles for a further two months while most of the Australians took part in the fighting around Pozieres to the south. During this fighting, Jim’s brother Hugh was killed in action.

Jim Brinsmead was mates with his sergeant, Robert Shearer. Shearer described how “I have seen him during a heavy bombardment when older men have been nervous—and I can assure you it was trying at times—[but] Jim would be laughing and joking, and by his example steady[ing] the other men on post who were with him.”

Private Brinsmead was a willing volunteer on many occasions, being among the first to go out into no man’s land as a stretcher bearer or as a member of a wiring party. Robert Shearer wrote that Jim was “always lively and cheerful, and at all times ready to obey and carry out orders … I numbered him high up amongst my best and most reliable men.”

In November 1916 the 57th Battalion shifted south to the Somme. By this time winter had closed in, and already the men were suffering in the severe cold and damp. On 26 November the battalion had been in the front line near Gueudecourt for several days, and in the freezing rain for the last two days. Like many soldiers, Jim Brinsmead ended up with bad feet from standing in the mud and slush at the bottom of the trench without respite.

On 27 November he was forced to go to hospital for treatment on his feet. However, as he was on his way, a German shell landed nearby. A small fragment of shell hit him, causing his death almost immediately.

Shearer wrote home to Jim’s mother to tell her what had happened to her son. He described how two men recovered his body and buried near him near where he fell, Shearer erecting a small cross over Brinsmead’s grave. He wrote, “a mother has lost a good son, and others a good friend… One thing I am assured of is that you must feel proud of such a son, and let it be some consolation he died doing his duty for his country.”

Jim Brinsmead’s grave was lost in later fighting, and today he is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, just a few panels away from his brother Hugh. He was 21 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 Private Albert James Brinsmead, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section