The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX117049) Private Noel Daniel Maher, 2/10th Battalion, 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 Nicholas Schmidt, the story for this day was on (NX117049) Private Noel Daniel Maher, 2/10th Battalion, Second World War.

NX117049 Private Noel Daniel Maher, 2/10th Battalion
KIA 27 January 1944
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 4 June 2015

Today we remember Private Noel Daniel Maher, who was killed in New Guinea on 27 January 1944.

Noel Maher was born on 16 December 1922 in Mullumbimby, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. His parents, Daniel and Sophie, had married in 1920. In the late 1930s the family moved to Nyngan, in central New South Wales, before settling in Wollongong.

Little is known about Noel Maher’s early life, but following the outbreak of the Pacific War the teenager was living in Cooma. He was called up for the Militia, serving as a trooper in the 7th Motor Regiment, a motorised light horse unit raised with men from the Canberra–Goulbourn district. In late 1942 Maher was among 120 men from the regiment who were transferred to Queensland’s 11th Motor Regiment.

The 11th Motor Regiment spent much of 1943 based in Gympie, training and carrying out various exercises. In early July a large draft of ten officers and 360 Other Ranks, including Maher, were transferred to the 7th Division’s 2/10th Battalion, then at Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tableland.

A South Australian unit, the 2/10th Battalion had served at the siege of Tobruk in 1941, and in Papua in 1942 – fighting first at Milne Bay and then in the bloody beachhead battles of Buna and Sanananda in December 1942 and January 1943. According to the 2/10th Battalion’s unit historian, the infantrymen christened the Queenslanders and New South Welshmen the “Forty Thousand Horsemen”, noting them as being “of good physique, well trained, and jolly fine fellows”.

In August 1943 the 2/10th Battalion returned to Papua, remaining in Port Moresby. From September, units from the 7th Division became heavily committed in the Allied offensive in New Guinea, capturing Lae and moving into the Markham and Ramu Valleys. On New Year’s Day 1944 the 2/10th Battalion began moving by air to Dumpu. The battalion took up positions in the narrow razorback ridges of the Ramu Valley.

The 2/10th Battalion spent two weeks of January 1944 patrolling and becoming acclimatised to the conditions and terrain. During this time, the Australian forces were planning to take the feature known as Shaggy Ridge and clear the sounding territory. The feature was taken, but in the subsequent fighting Maher was killed on 27 January as his platoon encountered a Japanese position consisting of pillboxes and trenches. Maher was 21 years old. The area was cleared by 1 February; 16 men of the battalion were killed or died of wounds and 27 were wounded.

Noel Maher is buried in Lae War Cemetery in New Guinea. He is one of six men from the Canberra region remembered on the 2/10th Battalion Memorial Cairn in Eddison Park, Woden. He is also commemorated here, on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second 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 Noel Daniel Maher and all those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section