The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (215) Corporal John James Murphy, 22nd 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (215) Corporal John James Murphy, 22nd Battalion, AIF, First World War.

215 Corporal John James Murphy, 22nd Battalion, AIF
KIA 5 August 1916
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 13 May 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Corporal John James Murphy.

Known as “Jack”, John Murphy was born in Victoria in 1887, the youngest son of Patrick and Bridget Murphy. As a young man he became apprenticed to a Bairnsdale printer, Mr Ross, and also worked as a compositor with the Courier and later the Snowy River Mail.

Jack Murphy enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in February 1915. He went into camp with a number of other men from the district, including his friend Ernest Andrews. The two trained together, and both were posted to the 22nd Battalion, leaving Australia in May 1915 for active service overseas.

Privates Murphy and Andrews spent nearly four months on Gallipoli. They arrived as the major offensive actions of the campaigns were drawing to a close, and Murphy spent some time transferred to Anzac Headquarters, returning to the 22nd Battalion shortly before the evacuation in December 1915.

After his return to Egypt, Murphy was promoted to the rank of lance corporal. The 22nd Battalion was sent to France to fight on the Western Front in March 1916, and had its first major action in early August near the French village of Pozières.

On 4 August 1916 the 22nd Battalion was called on to participate in an attack on two strongly-held German trenches near the OG Lines. The 22nd Battalion was one of only a few to reach its objectives during the operation, but strong German counter-attacks forced the men back, causing heavy casualties. Over the four-day operation more than 140 men were reported missing.

Two of those missing were Corporal Murphy and Private Andrews. It was quickly determined that they had been killed in action, although their bodies could not be recovered at the time. The local newspaper in Australia noted that since their enlistment “the two were never separated and their death notice appeared on the same day”.

In 1927 exhumation work by the Imperial War Graves Commisison recovered the bodies of Murphy and Andrews. They were found within yards of each other, and today they rest just a few graves apart in a military cemetery near the French village of Serre. Corporal John Murphy was 31 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in 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 John James Murphy, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section