The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6093) Private James Robertson, 38th Battalion, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (6093) Private James Robertson, 38th Battalion, First World War.

6093 Private James Robertson, 38th Battalion
KIA 7 June 1917
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 18 December 2014

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private James Robertson.

Jim Robertson was born in Stawell, Victoria. After completing school he underwent a five-year apprenticeship to become a compositor. He worked for a number of different newspapers, including the Stawell Times and the Dimboola Banner, before moving to Nhill to take a position with the Nhill Free Press. There he earned the nickname “Robby”, and made a large circle of friends. He was well known for entertaining people at social gatherings by playing a tin whistle, and was also a keen sportsman, playing football and winning a number of foot races in the local area.

Robertson enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 10 June 1916. Before he left, his employers at the Nhill Free Press presented him with a silver-mounted pipe and a leather belt and pouch as a mark of appreciation. Robertson said he “felt it was his duty to take up his rifle and go to the front … to sustain the prestige of the Empire and to fight for the cause of liberty and righteousness”.

Private Robertson left Australia with reinforcements to the 6th Battalion. He wrote of the trip: “I was a bit off colour, but when we had gone out a bit I was all myself again … it’s the best trip I have ever had or ever thought I would have.”

In England Robertson was transferred to the 38th Battalion and sent to France, where the Australians experienced one of the harshest European winters on record. In early 1917 he wrote to his employers, “one wouldn’t credit really how cold it is unless one was here; we cannot get warm”. He also considered the positive, saying, “this soldier’s life is a gay one, we have our troubles but we still all have a good deal of fun one way and another”.

In one of his last letters to the Nhill Free Press Robertson wrote of participating in a trench raid: “A good number of our boys gave Fritz a run and a gay time we had … we hopped over our parapet into no man’s land through our wires … into [the German] trench”. After clearing out the occupants and capturing some machine-guns, Private Robertson pulled his tin whistle out of his pocket and “played a couple of jigs in Fritz’s front line” before heading back. He added, “it was a bonzer time and one I will never forget”.

On 7 June 1917 Robertson was a member of a party sent to dig in near a bombing post. They had just finished when a stray artillery shell landed among them, setting off a store of grenades and killing the entire party instantly. Robertson’s body was hastily buried in a shell hole behind the trench, but the grave was lost in subsequent fighting. In Nhill flags were flown at half-mast in his memory. He was 33 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with more than 60,000 others from 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 Robertson, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section