The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3935) Private Richard Snell, 51st 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 (3935) Private Richard Snell, 51st Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3935 Private Richard Snell, 51st Battalion, AIF
KIA: 14 August 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Richard Snell.

Richard Snell, known as “Dick”, was born in 1895 in Allendale, Victoria, the son of Richard and Catherine McCubbin. When he was a small child the family moved to Western Australia. They were living in Mundaring when his sister Nellie was born in 1900. Nellie died two years later, after eating poisonous berries. By that time the family were living in Midland Junction, where they remained settled. Richard was educated at the Midland Junction State School, and after completing his education took up an apprenticeship as a printer’s machinist. He was “held in affectionate regard by every member” of the staff of his paper, the Camp Chronicle, based in Midland Junction.

Dick Snell served with a field engineer unit of his local citizens militia for a number of years, and had been trained as a signaller. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in December 1915 and, apparently frustrated by the delay further signals training would mean for his arrival on the battlefield, opted to go into the infantry. Private Snell left Fremantle on 12 February 1916 on board the troopship Miltiades with reinforcements to the 28th Battalion.

Snell was first sent to Egypt, where the AIF was undergoing a period of expansion and reorganisation following the withdrawal from Gallipoli. As part of this process, he was transferred to the 51st Battalion, and after more training in the desert, left for France and the battlefields of the Western Front in June 1916.

The 51st Battalion moved into the trenches in a quiet sector of the line within two weeks of arriving in France. Snell wrote home saying that he was “a member of a battalion intelligence platoon … [carrying out] the hazardous duties of patrolling No Man’s Land at night.”

The 51st Battalion would not participate in a major offensive action until August, when it took part in operations near Mouquet Farm, a fortified German position north of the French village of Pozieres.

On 14 August 1916 the 51st Battalion was hit by a German counter-attack that hit Australian lines before their own operation began. After the situation had settled, Private Richard Snell was missing.

Later investigations uncovered the fact that Dick Snell had been moving along a communication trench just behind the front line at some point on 14 August when a piece of shell struck him in the back of the head. He was killed instantly.
Private Richard Snell’s body was lifted out of the trench to make way for more men, but it was later recovered from the battlefield and buried. Today he lies in the Pozieres British Cemetery at Ovillers-la-Boiselle, not far from where he was killed. 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 Richard Snell, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section