The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (115) Private Percy Edward George, 1st Battalion, 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 Charis May, the story for this day was on (115) Private Percy Edward George, 1st Battalion, First World War.

115 Private Percy Edward George, 1st Battalion
DOW 19 November 1915, aged

Story delivered 20 June 2017

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Percy George.

Percy Edward George was born in Bathurst in 1895 to Henry and Mary George. He was educated at the South Bathurst School and went on to work as a carpenter for the Bathurst Railway Workshops.

Percy was one of the first from the Bathurst district to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force after the outbreak of war in 1914. After a period of training in Australia he left for overseas service with the first contingent in October 1914, and continued training after arriving in Egypt.

He wrote home to tell of his quiet Christmas and heavy training. He made friends with a local man from Cairo, and got leave to play music for a wedding with him. He wrote: “they drove me round in their motor car and back to the camp in the morning. They bring me plum puddings, fruit and smokes every couple of days, and make me dine at their place in town.” Nevertheless, he did not particularly like Egypt, telling his family, “the country does not agree with me like Australia.”

The 1st Battalion formed part of the second and third waves of the landing party at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Private George served on the peninsula as a stretcher bearer and wrote regular cheery letters home.

He had a number of close calls. At one point he was struck in the chest by a spent bullet that did little damage – or, as he told his parents, he “was so hard that it turned off”.

He referred to the trenches as his “open air boarding house”, and wrote:
we have to live in holes in the ground, and when we hear a shell coming all you can see of us is the last part going into a hole … I am afraid you will have a job to know me if I am spared. My chums tell me I’m growing
and filling out; this sort of work in the open air is doing me the world of good. I don’t think I will be able to live in a house after this; you will have to dig a hole in the back yard for me … I shall have to spend my birthday in the trenches, so you will have to drink my health at him and bottle a drop for me for a future day. I will be satisfied with my pot of black tea and tin of bully beef and a few biscuits.

He later reported, “I spent my 20th birthday very quietly in one sense, and very warmly otherwise, as there was plenty of shells and bullets in the air.”

The jovial tone of Private George’s letters often belied the seriousness of the situation, although he did tell his family of one dangerous incident:
[I] was helping to get in a wounded man in [when] three bombs landed near me which, with fumes and concussion, caused me to vomit freely.

George was “known in the firing-line as ‘the hero of the stretcher bearers’ because he was always at his post to help the wounded and the dying, and never seemed to think of his own personal safety.” At the Battle of Lone Pine in August 1915 he was seen “going round as coolly as though at Kensington picking up [the wounded].”

In September 1915 George was sent to the island of Lemnos for a period of leave. He wrote, “I can assure you we have earned our rest. We have been going since April 25 and have had a fair innings.”

During his time on Gallipoli, Private George had been avidly reading newspapers from home, and writing letters that were published in them in return. On 1 December a Bathurst newspaper published a letter from Percy George, full of breezy news of a nice stay on Lemnos, and entreaties for more men at home to enlist. Little did those at home know that Private George was already dead.

On 18 November Private George and two others left the front-line trench to get a wounded soldier. They successfully collected the man and were only a few yards into their return journey when an enemy shell landed nearby. George’s leg was badly shattered and he was taken,
unconscious, to the local casualty clearing station. He died shortly afterwards, never having regained consciousness. Lieutenant McVean, the officer commanding George’s company, wrote to his family to say “Poor Percy was a thorough soldier, and a son anyone might be proud of … you have the consolation of knowing not only that he died for his country, but that he died doing a deed of mercy.”

Percy George was buried in the cemetery at Ari Burnu. He was 20 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 Private Percy Edward George, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section