The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (807) Lance Corporal Maurice O’Donohue, 11th 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 , the story for this day was on (807) Lance Corporal Maurice O’Donohue, 11th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

807 Lance Corporal Maurice O’Donohue, 11th Battalion, AIF
KIA 25 April 1915

Story delivered 16 February 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Maurice O’Donohue.

Maurice O’Donohue was born in 1891, the second youngest of 12 children of James and Elizabeth O’Donohue of Horsham, Victoria. Maurice moved with his family to the Kalgoorlie goldfields in Western Australia, where he spent his formative years. After school, he attended Claremont Training College and became a teacher with the Western Australian Education Department. He taught at Northam State School, where he was remembered as a “sterling Catholic and Hibernian. Every Sunday morning saw him at Mass receiving Holy Communion, and attending benediction at night.”

O’Donohue enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Helena Vale near Perth in September 1914. After a period of training at Blackboy Hill, he embarked with the first troopship convoy as an original member of the 11th Battalion. Initially destined for Europe, the troopships were diverted to Egypt following Ottoman Turkey’s entry into the war. In Egypt the Australian and New Zealand troops spent some months protecting British interests in the area. By April the following year, they were drawn in to a major allied effort to force a passage through the Dardanelles and knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. O’Donohue had by then been promoted to lance corporal.

The 11th Battalion landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The day before, O’Donohue had written a letter describing his part in the assault and the preparations for it. “In a few hours we shall be fighting a more tangible foe than ill-health,” he said. “Let us hope our luck will hold good on the peninsula of Gallipoli. At 3.30 pm we go on board the Destroyers, and will be taken on them as near our landing place as the depth of water will allow. Then we take the rowing boats, and then ashore. We shall have an imposing reception. For the rest, one must take his chance while doing his bit.”

The 11th Battalion landed the following morning, coming ashore near Ari Burnu at around 4.30 am. Meeting little resistance, they pushed inland, where the Australian attack quickly became disorganised and confused in the steep terrain. Over the following hours, Turkish resistance stiffened as reinforcements were rushed to the Anzac area. Over the following days, Australian and New Zealand troops dug in, well short of their objectives, under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire from the Turks.

The Australians lost over 5,000 casualties in just four days of fighting. Among them was Maurice O’Donohue. Initially listed as missing in action, his parents wrote repeatedly to the Defence Department asking for news of their missing son, wondering whether he had been taken prisoner by the Turks. No word was heard of O’Donohue until April 1916, when a court of inquiry determined he had been killed in action on 25 April 1915. Aged 23 at the time of his death, O’Donohue is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, alongside 5,000 Australian and New Zealand troops with no known grave who died fighting on Gallipoli.

Maurice O’Donohue is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

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

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section