The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (334) Corporal Robert Porteous, 2nd Battalion, AIF, 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 (334) Corporal Robert Porteous, 2nd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

334, Corporal Robert Porteous, 2nd Battalion, AIF
KIA 19 May 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 May 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal Robert Porteous.

Bob Porteous was born in Footscray to George and Alice Porteous. When he was a child his family moved to Narrandera, New South Wales, and young Robert attended the Narrandera Public School. He went on to work with textiles in a number of local businesses, eventually leaving to take a position in Armidale under George Braund. Porteous then moved to Sydney, working at Grace Brothers for a period of time, and eventually took a position as a mechanic in the electrical department of the General Post Office.

It was from this job that Robert Porteous enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 22 August 1914. He underwent a period of training in Australia, and then left for overseas service with the first contingent. Porteous was posted to the 2nd Battalion, coincidentally under the command of his former employer, George Braund, now a lieutenant colonel in the AIF.

Porteous proved an able soldier, and was promoted to lance corporal while training in Egypt. He nearly missed the dawn landing on Gallipoli, having failed to board the troopship with the rest of the 2nd Battalion when they left Alexandria on 5 April. He was able to catch up with them on Lemnos just over a week later, and was with the battalion when they landed at Anzac on the morning of 25 April 1915. The battalion was almost immediately involved in desperate attempts to hold the high ground above the beach.

Little is known of what happened to Porteous in those hectic first days. We know that he once again proved his capability because on the 1st of May, five days after the landing, he was again promoted, this time to corporal. He was assigned to 4 platoon of A Company, 2nd Battalion.

On 19 May, shortly after 3 am, the Turks conducted a major counter-attack against the Anzac line. For hours waves of Turkish soldiers attacked various parts of the line, sustaining heavy casualties. They also caused heavy casualties among the Anzacs desperately trying to hold the line. One of the Australians killed was Bob Porteous.

Two of his friends from 4 Platoon, William Lowe and Donald Anderson, wrote to his mother, now widowed, in Narrandera. They said that Corporal Porteous, “was shot through the head while helping to repulse an attack, and died instantaneously; suffering no pain at all”. Her son, they said, “was one of the most popular and also one of the most efficient non-commissioned officers that our platoon had, and we were very sorry indeed to lose him”.

Porteous was buried in a battlefield grave, with a simple cross erected in his memory. That grave has since been lost, and Robert Porteous is now remembered on the Lone Pine memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula. He was 27 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 Corporal Robert Porteous, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.