The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4541) Private Robert Richardson Tidyman, 19th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (4541) Private Robert Richardson Tidyman, 19th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

4541 Private Robert Richardson Tidyman, 19th Battalion, AIF
KIA 15 November 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 23 March 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Robert Richardson Tidyman.

Bob Tidyman was born in Queensland in 1890 to Robert and Lizzie Tidyman. When he was a child his family moved to Sydney, and he grew up in Woollahra. He became known for his prowess as a Rugby League player; he played for Eastern Suburbs as their three-quarter back, and for New South Wales and Australia in the years before the war. He was widely known as “a fine young fellow and a glorious footballer”.

Bob Tidyman was one of three sons of Robert and Lizzie Tidyman to serve during the Great War. He enlisted in December 1915 and was posted to the 19th Battalion. His brothers Christopher and William served in different battalions, and although wounded they both returned to Australia after the war.

Private Robert Tidyman underwent a period of training in Australia, Egypt, and then England. He did not arrive in France to fight on the Western Front until September 1916, by which time his battalion had participated in the fighting around the French village of Pozières and had suffered heavy casualties. Nevertheless, two months later they were called into the front line again, this time near the French village of Flers.

On 14 November 1916 the 19th Battalion attacked a German position called Gird Trench, capturing most of its objective during the day and consolidating it overnight. The battalion was relieved at midnight on 15 November and its men withdrew to Mametz Camp. Private Tidyman was not among them.

Some reports said that Tidyman had been killed in action, others that he had been taken prisoner or wounded. Still others said that he had been put in charge of taking some prisoners to the back lines and had been sniped or killed some other way while he was doing so. A court of inquiry never discovered the exact manner of his death, but in 1917 it declared that he had been killed in action at Flers on 15 November 1916.

In February 1917 Private Fitzpatrick of the 4th Battalion was going over some captured ground near Flers. He had been a referee in the lower grades of Rugby League in New South Wales before the war. As he walked, he saw an old Rugby League membership ticket on the ground. Picking it up, he saw it had the name R. Tidyman on it. He and another man scouted around and found a body of an Australian soldier. Nearby there were some letters with the name R. Tidyman “just discernible on the envelope”. With no other way of identifying the body, and under fire at the time, they hastily buried the body nearby. Fitzpatrick wrote, “I thought, of course, it was poor old Bob, but was hoping against hope that I might be wrong, not knowing whether he was at the front or not.” It was never determined whether they had found Tidyman’s body or not, and it was not recovered after the war.

Today Private Robert Tidyman is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Villers-Bretonneux. He was 26 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died during 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 Robert Richardson Tidyman, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section