The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (848) Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas, 20th Battalion, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (848) Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas, 20th Battalion, First World War.

848 Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas, 20th Battalion
KIA 30 July 1916
Photograph: P05470.002

Story delivered 30 July 2013

Today, we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas of the 20th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force.

Alan Douglas, born in 1894 in Picton, New South Wales, was the second of three sons and a daughter born to Mary and George Douglas. His father had been one of a NSW contingent sent to fight with the British in the Sudan in 1885. When Alan was a boy, the family settled in the Sydney suburb of Erskineville, where Douglas worked as a printer while also serving in the militia. In March 1915, at the age of 21, Douglas became the first of his brothers to enlist.

Within months, Douglas had embarked for Egypt, before sailing to Gallipoli with the 20th Battalion, arriving just after the August offensive and remaining on Gallipoli until the withdrawal in December. Back in Egypt in early 1916 the newly-promoted Lance Corporal Alan Douglas was joined by his brother Gordon, who had enlisted in the 17th Battalion. Both Douglas boys travelled to France, where they were soon involved in the Battle of Pozières.

Pozières was a maelstrom of artillery and machine-gun fire, and units often became mixed up on the battlefield. At some point, Alan Douglas failed to answer the roll call, but nobody was sure what happened to him. Some reports state he had been killed by a bomb, others that he had been killed by a machine-gun bullet. His body was never recovered, and a court of enquiry the following year determined that he had been killed in action, probably on 30 July 1916.

At home in Erskineville, his parents received notification that he was missing and had to wait for confirmation of his whereabouts, although they had very little expectation he would be found alive. In April 1917 Alan's brother Gordon was killed at Bullecourt - and in August, Alan's death was confirmed.

The war had not finished with the Douglas family. In September 1917, their youngest son Kenneth was also killed in action at the age of 19. Within 14 months the Douglas family had lost three sons to war.

In 1921, after receiving the Memorial Scrolls given in commemoration of the service of his sons, their father wrote:
I can assure you that the heart rending suffering of my wife, the mother of the three boys whose lives paid the supreme sacrifice, is as fresh today as the day the ill-fated news arrived, and tokens of a grateful king and government help to warm the heart and sustain the body which has suffered so much.

Lance Corporal Alan Douglas is buried in the Pozières British Cemetery in France. His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with about 60,000 others from the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal Alan Edward Douglas, Lance Sergeant Gordon Leslie Douglas, Private Kenneth George Douglas, and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.