The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX56450) Sergeant Colin Thomas Everett, 3 Anti Tank Regiment RAA, Second 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 Andrew Smith, the story for this day was on (NX56450) Sergeant Colin Thomas Everett, 3 Anti Tank Regiment RAA, Second World War.

NX56450 Sergeant Colin Thomas Everett, 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, AIF
KIA 27 October 1942
Photograph: P03914.012

Story delivered 27 October 2013

Today we remember Sergeant Colin Thomas Everett, who was killed at El Alamein on 27 October 1942.

Colin Everett was born on 2 October 1917 at Forest Reefs, south of Orange in rural New South Wales. The second son of William Thomas and Violet Rose Everett, Colin was one of six children. Living in the country, Colin became a reputed "crack shot" and worked as a lorry driver in and around Narromine.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Everett enlisted in the army on 5 July 1940. By the month's end he was posted to the newly raised 3rd Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery.

Sent to the Middle East in late 1940, the regiment joined what became the 9th Australian Division. In March 1941 the regiment slowed the German and Italian advance into Libya at Mechili and, along with the rest of the 9th Division, subsequently held the fortress of Tobruk during its epic siege. In Egypt in 1942 the Australians fought in the first and second battles of El Alamein.

At Alamein, in the afternoon of 27 October, Everett and the regiment's 11th Battery were supporting the 2/17th Battalion on a feature called Trig 29. The Germans attacked the Australian front with tanks and infantry but were beaten back by Australian artillery, mortars and machine-gun fire. Everett was killed during the battle and was buried in the El Alamein War Cemetery. He was 25 years old.

Today, more than seventy years after his death, the letters and photographs he sent home read like a travel brochure, with references of visits to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and in Palestine, and to the pyramids and the Sphinx outside of Cairo in Egypt.

It is clear that Everett was a fit and capable soldier. Despite the exhausting conditions and the strain of combat, he never reported being sick, he was not admitted to an aid post or hospital, and he was not wounded or injured. In late April 1941 he was promoted first to acting bombardier and then, four months later, to lance sergeant. He was promoted to sergeant in February 1942.

The eventual British success at Alamein in November 1942 is widely considered to be one of the turning points of Second World War. Victory, however, came at a heavy price. Everett was one of more than 600 Australians killed during the battle.

In 1967, members of the 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regiment Association visited Alamein to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the battle. The association's secretary wrote reassuringly to Everett's family, saying: "I visited Col's grave along with other men from our regiment. They are sleeping quietly there, close to the seashore, amid what was once a great battlefield - but all is quiet now."

Everett is commemorated here on the Roll of Honour to my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War, and his photograph is displayed by the Pool of Reflection.

We now remember Sergeant Colin Everett and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.