The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (VX57880) Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (VX57880) Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

VX57880 Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Accidentally killed 21 May 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 7 August 2014

Today we pay tribute to Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy, who was killed in the service of the Royal Australian Engineers in 1945.

We know very little of the early life of Herbert John Pomeroy, known to family as Jack. He was born in Reading, England, on 21 May 1914, and after the First World War immigrated to Australia. There he worked as a miner and a munitions factory worker before joining the Second Australian Imperial Force.

Pomeroy enlisted on 17 June 1941. Posted to the Royal Australian Engineers, he embarked for overseas service in November 1941 and joined the 2/8th Field Company in Syria. He served with the field company as part of the 6th Division, first in the Middle East and then for some months as part of the Ceylon garrison in 1942 before returning to Australia in August. After serving with the 2/8th in New Guinea, in December 1944 Pomeroy was back in Australia and posted to the large Australian Army training base at Kapooka as a training instructor to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers.

Now based in Wagga Wagga, his wife, Dorothy Margaret, and their children moved up from Melbourne to join him. On the morning of 21 May 1945 they wished Jack a happy 31st birthday before he left for work. It would be the last time they saw him alive. That afternoon, while training new recruits, tragedy struck.

Crowded in a dug-out during a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges were two groups: one of 22 trainees and two instructors; the other a smaller squad of three men and one instructor. Inside the dug-out were 110 pounds of explosives stored for the day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown, the explosives ignited. Twenty-four men were killed instantly in the explosion, while two died of injuries shortly afterwards and two more were severely injured.

Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy was one of those killed.

A mass funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga. Thousands of people lined the funeral parade route, and the 26 flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks. The cortège included more than 100 military vehicles carrying members of the Army and Air Force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

At the time of his death, Herbert and Dorothy Pomeroy had four young children under the age of five.

Pomeroy’s name – along with the other 25 killed in the accident – is listed here on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians killed in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Acting Sergeant Herbert John Pomeroy, and all of those Australians who gave their lives in war in the hope for a better world.