The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (804) Corporal Charles Oscar Zander, 10th 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 (804) Corporal Charles Oscar Zander, 10th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

804 Corporal Charles Oscar Zander, 10th Battalion, AIF
KIA 22 August 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Charles Oscar Zander.

Charles Zander was born on 11 October 1885 to Gustav and Anna Zander of Viteika. His village was at the time Vilna in Russia, but is now Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. His mother died when he was a small boy, and he was raised by his grandmother. By the time he was 16, however, he was left “quite alone” in the world. At that point Zander chose a life at sea, travelling to England to learn navigation. After many years of being based in London, Zander became a naturalised British citizen on 16 January 1911. He then came to Australia, continuing his work as a mariner based in Port Adelaide. There he was reported to have “enjoyed the esteem of a large circle of friends”.

Charles Zander enlisted for service in the Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of war in August 1914. He was posted to the 10th Battalion, and after a brief period of training he left with the first contingent for active service overseas. Private Zander was first sent to Egypt, where he continued his training before being sent to Gallipoli.

In the early hours of 25 April 1915, men of the 10th Battalion rowed silently towards the Turkish shore at what would become known as Anzac Cove. The war diary of the battalion records that “no sound was heard, except the splash of the oars; we thought that our landing was to be effected quite unopposed, but when our boats were within about 30 yards of the beach a rifle was fired from the hill in front of us above the beach, right in front of where we were heading for. Almost immediately heavy rifle and machine-gun fire was opened upon us.” The men finished rowing to the shore and dashed for the heights above the beach.

Private Zander remained with the 10th Battalion on the Gallipoli peninsula throughout the campaign, surviving the landing and months of sniper and artillery fire. He was evacuated with the remainder of his battalion towards the end of 1915, and returned to Egypt where he underwent medical treatment for an ongoing problem.

In March 1916 the 10th Battalion sailed for France and the Western Front. In June, Zander was granted seven days’ leave to the United Kingdom. During this time he met up with an old friend from his earlier days in London, a woman named Ethel Horne. She was widowed with two small children, and during his leave, the two married. They had very little time together before he returned to France.
Shortly after Zander returned to his battalion, it took part in the first major offensive conducted by 1st Anzac Corps on the Western Front when it attacked and captured the French village of Pozieres. The battalion was relieved after several days’ heavy fighting, and again Zander came through unscathed. In August he was promoted to corporal, and shortly afterwards returned to the trenches in Pozieres to take part in another attack on the German positions opposite.

On 19 August 1916 the 10th Battalion took part in an attack that was launched in the early evening. Over the following days, the men of the battalion slogged their way forward and established a tenuous position under extremely heavy shell-fire. The attack captured at most a few feet of territory at a very heavy cost.

One of those killed was Corporal Charles Zander. Little is known of the manner of his death, and his body was never recovered from the shell-torn battlefield. Today the Russian-born British subject is commemorated as an Australia soldier on the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. He was 30 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 Charles Oscar Zander, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section