The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4765) Private William Lincoln Rae 20th 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 Alison Creagh, the story for this day was on (4765) Private William Lincoln Rae 20th Battalion, AIF. First World War.

4765 Private William Lincoln Rae 20th Battalion, AIF
KIA 8 August 1918 Photograph: H13922

Story delivered on 24 May 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private William Lincoln Rae.

Popularly known as “Will”, William Lincoln Rae was born on 18 March 1894 in Marrickville, New South Wales to Arthur and Annie Rae. His father, Arthur, was a prominent unionist and a founding member of the Labor Party.

William Rae grew up in Glenorie and attended Glenorie Public School. After leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship in Sydney working as a printer’s apprentice. By the outbreak of the First World War, he was working as a letter press machinist in the inner west suburb of Marrickville.

On 28 December 1915, Rae and his younger brother Don enlisted together at Casula. Following their initial training, the brothers were allotted to the 12th reinforcements to the 20th Battalion.

The Rae brothers embarked from Sydney on 13 April 1916 aboard the transport ship Ceramic. After disembarking in England, the brothers spent several months with the 5th Training Battalion, before being sent to France in early September.

Rae and his brother joined the 20th Battalion on 7 October, in time to experience one of the worst European winters on record. The battalion took part in the disastrous attack on Flers. During the battle Rae was wounded by shrapnel in his right arm, and was evacuated to England.
His brother Don came through the battle unscathed.

While in England he was able to reunite with Donald, who had been wounded in February 1917 near Bapaume.

After leaving hospital, Rae was transferred to the 61st Battalion as part of the AIF’s attempt to raise a 6th Division. He remained with this unit until September after which he was posted to a training unit for return to the 20th Battalion.

Here he was again reunited with his brother and the pair returned to France in early October and re-joined the 20th Battalion. The battalion spent the next few months resting and refitting with several spells in the front line.

Don was transferred to the 19th Battalion in mid-January 1918 and was captured by the Germans while serving in the 5th Light Trench Mortar Battery near Hangard Wood in April. Rae made enquiries as to his brother’s whereabouts, and would no doubt have been relieved to hear that Don was alive, although he had been taken prisoner.

In the early hours of 8 August, the Battle of Amiens, the great allied offensive that would ultimately end the war, began. The 20th Battalion advanced under cover of a heavy fog and took all their objectives. The battalion suffered five men killed during the morning, one of whom was Rae. He was 24 years old.

His body was initially interred at Fouilloy, but after the end of the war, with some of the smaller cemeteries being amalgamated with larger ones nearby, his body was exhumed and re-interred in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery.

The depth of his family’s pain and loss can be felt through the epitaph placed on their son’s headstone: “Another life lost, hearts broken for what”.

Further tragedy awaited the Rae family. Don was released in December 1918, but he contracted enteric fever while visiting family and friends in Scotland and died on 15 January 1919.

William Rae’s 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 Private William Lincoln Rae, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section