The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (385) Private James Clarence Johnson, 7th 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 , the story for this day was on (385) Private James Clarence Johnson, 7th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

385 Private James Clarence Johnson, 7th Battalion, AIF
KIA: 8 May 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private James Clarence Johnson.

James Johnson was born in 1887, the third of seven children born to William and Margaret Johnson of Rushworth, Victoria. Known as “Jimmy” to his family and friends, he attended a local state school at Rushworth, and later worked as a manager in the grocery department at a local store. He was also a member of the Rushworth Brass Band.

Johnson volunteered to join the Australian Imperial Force on 17 August 1914, just weeks after the beginning of the First World War. He soon began training with the 7th Battalion, one of the first units to be raised in Australia when the war began.

After a little over two months of training at camps at Moonee Ponds and Broadmeadows, Johnson and the 7th Battalion sailed from Melbourne as part of the first convoy of Australian troops to depart Australia for overseas service. In early December 1914, after a brief stopover in Albany, Western Australia, they arrived in Egypt to continue training.

In Egypt, Johnson joined B Company of his battalion, and drew on his experience playing the Rushworth Brass Band to serve as one of his unit’s buglers.

In February 1915 Johnson transferred with his unit from Egypt to the Greek island of Lemnos, where they prepared for the upcoming attack on Turkish in the Dardanelles.

Johnson and the 7th Battalion were among the second wave of Anzac troops to land on Gallipoli in the early hours of 25 April 1915. As he and the men of B Company rowed towards their landing site, they came under fire from Turkish rifles and machine-guns. Once ashore they took up a position behind a sandbank under enemy fire, and eventually managed to occupy some forward Turkish trench positions. However, that afternoon a Turkish counter-attack pushed them back to the beach. They had suffered heavy casualties.

On 6 May, less than two weeks after the initial landing at Anzac, Johnson and the 7th Battalion moved to Cape Helles on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula to assist in a major British attack aimed at the town of Krithia.

On 8 May 1915, during what has become known as the second battle of Krithia, Johnson and his unit were moving forward from a series of support lines to the front-line trenches. As they advanced across the open country between the lines, they came under heavy Turkish high explosive and shrapnel artillery fire.

Johnson was killed during the advance towards the firing line. One report states that he was seen to have been seriously wounded by an artillery explosion during the advance, and as he crawled away to seek help was seen to be struck once again by artillery fire.

In the chaos and confusion of the fighting on Gallipoli, Johnson was originally reported as wounded, and his family back home in Australia received news that he had been shot in the shoulder, had recovered in hospital, and had returned to the lines in June.

However, not long after reading in the newspapers that he had returned to the lines, they received news from soldiers who had returned home to Rushworth that Johnson had been killed. This news seemed to be confirmed by a letter of condolence from a chaplain who had served with Johnson at the front.

Desperate for news as to his fate, Johnson’s family wrote frantically to the authorities for clarification. It was not until January 1916 that they received confirmation that he had been killed on 8 May 1915.

Weeks after hearing of their brother’s death, Johnson’s younger brothers Harold and Rupert enlisted into the army. They served for the rest of the war on the Western Front.
James Clarence Johnson was 28 years old, and has no known grave.

On hearing confirmation of his death, his grieving family left many messages of condolences in the local newspapers. In one, they left the following poem:
One of the best, a loving son,
A brother kind and true;
So dearly loved, so sadly missed,
By everyone he knew.

His name is listed on the Helles Memorial in Turkey, where the names of over 20,000 soldiers of the First World War who have no known grave are commemorated.
Private James Clarence Johnson’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 James Clarence Johnson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

David Sutton
Historian, Military History Section