The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1768) Sergeant Arthur Haddon, 4th 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 (1768) Sergeant Arthur Haddon, 4th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1768 Sergeant Arthur Haddon, 4th Battalion, AIF
KIA 6 August 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 28 September 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant Arthur Henry Haddon, who was killed fighting on Gallipoli during the First World War.

Arthur Haddon was born in 1885, one of ten children of Ephraim and Mary Haddon of Liverpool, New South Wales. After school, Arthur married Dora Hawkins and joined the Royal Garrison Artillery, where he manned the coastal defences to Sydney Heads. He and Dora resided in the inner city suburb of Waterloo, where over the following years they produced three children – Arthur, Ralph, and Beatrice. After completing a term of service as an artilleryman, Arthur discharged from the Royal Garrison Artillery and became a glass blower at the Botany Glass Bottle Works. He was also involved in the Citizens’ Military Forces, parading part time as a bandsman with the 6th (Australian Rifles) Regiment’s headquarters company at Victoria Barracks in Sydney.

Haddon enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in November 1914, and after a period of training embarked for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 4th Battalion in March 1915. By the time he arrived, Australian troops had already landed on Gallipoli as part of a wider effort to gain control of the Dardanelles and knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. Haddon joined the 4th Battalion there in early July as it manned the front-line positions on MacLaurin’s Hill. Haddon’s previous military experience was recognised by his superiors and he was promoted to platoon sergeant of A Company’s No. 1 Platoon.

In August, Australian troops on Gallipoli participated in an offensive intending to break out of the Anzac beachhead and gain control of the high ground dominated by the Turks since the landing. The offensive called for a series of synchronised attacks along the Anzac front, including assaults at The Nek, Hill 971, and Lone Pine. This attack at Lone Pine was intended to draw Turkish reserves away from the main assault to the north. In the afternoon of 6 August 1915, Australian troops of the 1st Brigade, including the 4th Battalion, rushed the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine. The main position was taken within 20 minutes of the initial charge, but this was the prelude to four days of intense hand-to-hand fighting, resulting in more than 2,000 Australian casualties. Among them was Sergeant Arthur Haddon.

Haddon was listed as missing in the days following the assault, but details of his fate were unclear. One man saw him nursing a bullet wound to his stomach in the trenches at Lone Pine; another saw him being carried away by stretcher-bearers; and yet another had heard he was in hospital on Malta. Without any further news of his whereabouts, a court of inquiry determined he had been killed on 6 August 1915. Despite this ruling, the conflicting eyewitness reports gave Haddon’s mother false hope that her son was still alive, and for some time she refused to accept his death. He was 29.

Haddon’s remains were never recovered, and his name appears on the Lone Pine Memorial among the 4,900 Australian and New Zealand troops killed on Gallipoli who have no known grave.

His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 others from the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section