The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3560) Private William Swainger, 6th 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (3560) Private William Swainger, 6th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3560 Private William Swainger, 6th Battalion, AIF
KIA 4 October 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Swainger.

William Swainger was born in 1890, the youngest of three sons born to Francis and Ellen Swainger of the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. Known as “Willy” to his family and friends, Swainger attended Richmond Central School, and later found employment as a process worker with Ansell rubber.

Swainger enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 2 August 1915 in Melbourne. His older brother Henry also tried to enlist, but as he was married with a child, he was told at the recruitment centre to go home and reconsider.
After enlisting, William Swainger became engaged to his sweetheart Margaret Morris, the sister of his brother Henry’s wife, Ellen.

After training, Swainger sailed from Australia for service overseas with the reinforcements of the 8th Battalion. He was too late to take part in the Gallipoli campaign, but instead went to Egypt for a period known as the “doubling of the AIF”, when new recruits were mixed with Gallipoli veterans to form expanded units heading for the Western Front. Swainger transferred to the 6th Infantry Battalion, which was part of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Australian Division. In March 1916 he sailed for France.

Swainger’s first major battle on the Western Front came at the battle of Pozieres near the Somme River. In this battle, the Australian 1st Division, of which Swainger was part, suffered over 5,200 casualties between 23 and 27 July.

In November 1916, the 6th Battalion was resting and training behind the lines after spending time in the trenches as Guedecourt, north of the Somme River, when Swainger was hospitalised with an illness known as trench foot. Trench foot was a serious and painful condition caused by spending too long standing in the wet and muddy conditions so common on the Western Front. Swainger’s injuries were so severe that he went to England for recovery, and did not rejoin his unit until September 1917, when they were resting and training behind the lines at Steenvoorde in Belgium.

On 4 October 1917, just days after he returned to his unit, Swainger and the 6th Battalion took part in the Battle of Broodseinde, part of a larger campaign now known at the Third Battle of Ypres. In this battle, Australian troops, in conjunction with New Zealand and British forces, attacked over a wide area to take an important ridge near the trenches.

In the early hours of 4 October, Swainger and his unit moved to forward positions in preparation for their attack. At about 4:30 am, as they lay in shell-holes preparing to advance, they came under heavy German artillery and mortar fire. All they could do was remain where they lay and try to last out the bombardment. They suffered heavy casualties.

At 6 am, the British launched a major bombardment of the German lines, and the Australian troops jumped out of their shell-holes into no man’s land. The battle was a success, but came at a heavy price. The men who had survived the mortar barrage before they advanced faced heavy German high explosive and shrapnel artillery fire, as well as strong resistance from German pill-boxes.

Australian forces lost 6,500 casualties killed, wounded and missing at Broodseinde. Among the dead was Private William Swainger, probably killed during the German mortar attack or by enemy machine-gun fire. He was 27 years old.

He was originally buried with three other soldiers near where he fell at Zonnebeke. After the war his body was moved to a larger cemetery at Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery in Belgium. After he was moved, his body could not be positively distinguished from that of another soldier, Private John Turner; so the two Australian soldiers now lie side by side, each with a grave that reads, “Buried near this spot”.

Swainger’s fiancée Margaret was devastated by the news of his death, and left numerous messages of grief in local newspapers. In November 1917, she wrote: “My sacrifice is in what I have lost, His in what he gave.” She never married, and died in 1952.

Swainger’s 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 William Swainger, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section