The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1283) Sapper Francis Martin Griffin, 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company, First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial every 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 (1283) Sapper Francis Martin Griffin, 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company, First World War.

1283 Sapper Francis Martin Griffin, 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company
KIA 28 June 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 28 June 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Sapper Francis Martin Griffin.

Frank Griffin was born in Dublin, but was living in Victoria at the time of his enlistment into the first AIF in August 1915. After some months of training he was sent to serve in France on the Western Front with the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company. His outdoor work had given him a lined face and made him look much older than his 32 years, and he had a distinctive scar on his upper lip and cheek. He must have been something of a larrikin, as his service record logs a charge against him for the theft of beer while on board a troop ship.

Tunnelling companies on the Western Front performed a variety of tasks: salvaging material from the battlefield, reinforcing cellars and dugouts for occupation, digging new trenches and communication saps, installing and improving the system that took water to front line trenches. What these men are best known for, perhaps, is their work in digging deep tunnels: in these they laid mines far under the German defences, and listened for Germans doing the same thing. Their work was often technically difficult and very dangerous.

In June 1917 Griffin's 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company was attached to the British 46th Division, operating around Loos in northern France. Three small parties went on a raid with British infantry to destroy three known German mine shafts in an area newly captured by the British. Sapper Griffin was assigned to this party, but never returned from the raid.

A few days earlier he had written to his sister, saying, "I am doing well, been very lucky and don't see any reason why I should not continue to be," but his luck was at an end. An investigation into Frank Griffin's fate revealed that he had been killed by a sniper's bullet while still in the German trenches. A number of his mates made reports to say that they had seen him fall after being shot in the forehead. The commanding officer of the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company, Major Leslie Coulter, was killed in a similar manner at the same time. But while Coulter's body was retrieved, Griffin's was too far away and still in the German lines. A German counter-attack ended any hope of retrieving his body, and his final resting place is unknown today.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War. His is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sapper Frank Griffin and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.