The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1181) Lance Corporal George Stolz, No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, 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 Meredith Duncan, the story for this day was on (1181) Lance Corporal George Stolz, No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, First World War.

1181 Lance Corporal George Stolz, No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital
KIA 3 December 1915
Photograph: P08684.001

Story delivered 8 April 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal George Alexander Stolz, who was killed on Gallipoli in the First World War.

George Stolz was born in 1886, one of eight children of Georg and Sabina Stolz of the Adelaide suburb of Unley. Originally from Baden-Württemberg in Germany, the Stolz family had immigrated to Adelaide from London when George was four months old. He attended Sturt Street Public School and Unley College, after which he studied as a fitter and turner at the Adelaide School of Mines. He was also a pre-war member of the Australian Army Medical Corps, parading part-time with the No. 6 Light Horse Field Ambulance.

Stolz was working in Broken Hill when war was declared, and enlisted when he returned to Adelaide that October. After signing on for overseas service at Morphettville, he embarked later that year with the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital as part of the first Australian troopship convoy, bound for the fighting in Europe. Following Ottoman Turkey’s entry into the war against the British Empire, the troopships were soon diverted to Egypt where the Australians spent the following months protecting British interests in the area.

Stolz spent the following months at Heliopolis, near Cairo, where he worked as an orderly in the hospital after the Gallipoli landings of April 1915. Having been promoted to lance corporal, he tended to the sick and wounded while based on the Greek island of Lemnos. In August, Stolz suffered from a severe case of influenza, requiring several weeks of recovery. He was fit enough to continue working by October, just as the seasons changed and disease began to spread in the freezing conditionson the peninsula. Having spent most of the Gallipoli campaign on Lemnos, the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital was moved to Anzac Cove in November and remained there until the evacuation.

Although he fighting on the peninsula had come to a standstill, the medical units at Anzac were still prone to Turkish artillery as it routinely shelled the beach with shrapnel and high-explosive. On 3 December 1915 Stolz was sitting in a tent with several others when an artillery shell fell among them. Stolz was killed instantly, and several others were severely wounded.

Stoltz was just 29. He was buried at the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital Lines and later reinterred at Ari Burnu Cemetery on Gallipoli. According to his commanding officer, his death was mourned by all, adding, “He was probably the most popular soldier in the unit.” Another man who served with Stolz paid him the following tribute:

His name and memory will be revered not only by his immediate relations, but by all who came into contact with him, as his genial disposition and merry laugh won him friends wherever he went.

Both of George Stolz’s grieving parents died soon after.

Lance Corporal Stolz’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 others from the First World War. His photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is just one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal George Stolz, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section