The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2861) Lance Corporal George Lyons, 55th 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 Chris Widenbar, the story for this day was on (2861) Lance Corporal George Lyons, 55th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2861 Lance Corporal George Lyons, 55th Battalion, AIF
KIA 9 March 1917
Story delivered 9 March 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal George Lyons.

George Lyons was born in 1890, one of seven children born to William and Jessie Lyons of the small village of Euchareena, north of Orange in central west New South Wales. The Lyons were a pioneering family with strong ties to the area and owned a property where three generations of the family grazed sheep and cattle. George likely he attended Euchareena Public School before working as a labourer on the family property. He played football and cricket at nearby Wellington, and was described by those who knew him as a “popular and well-respected young man”.

George Lyons enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Sydney in June 1915. After training at Liverpool military camp, he sailed for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 3rd Battalion. By the time he arrived, the Gallipoli campaign had ended, and Lyons spent the following months training at Mena Camp near Cairo. After the evacuation, the Australian Imperial Force underwent a period of expansion and reorganisation in preparation for its departure for the Western Front. As part of this, Lyons was transferred to the newly-raised 55th Battalion and sailed for France in June 1916.

Not long after arriving, the 55th Battalion participated in the first major action fought by the Australians in France. On the evening of 19 July 1916, troops of the Australian 5th Division assaulted the German positions near the village of Fromelles, where they suffered catastrophic losses. The 55th was held in reserve for the attack, although plenty of its members were subjected to German shell-fire. Just days after the action, Lyons was promoted to lance corporal as the battalion began to recover from its losses.

The 55th Battalion remained in the Fromelles area until it was transferred to the Somme in October 1916. By then, the British offensive in the area had petered out. The Australians endured a bitterly cold winter and spent the following months holding positions between the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt. In December, Lyons spent several weeks at a school behind the lines and was trained in the use of the Lewis light machine-gun. When he returned, he was made a commander of the Lewis gun detachment in B Company’s No. 8 Platoon. The men under Lyons’s command affectionately knew him as “Pud”.

The Australians remained in the Flers-Gueudecourt sector until February 1917, when the Germans abandoned their Somme defences. The war was restored to one of movement over the following weeks, as British forces, including the Australians, followed up on the German withdrawal. By early March, the advancing columns had reached the outskirts of Bapaume, where they regularly skirmished with German rear-guards intent on holding back a rapid British advance.

On 9 March 1917, the 55th Battalion was on the outskirts of Bapaume, and had received orders to relieve the 54th Battalion in the front line the following day. Lyons and his Lewis gun team began to move forward to provide coving fire if the Germans engaged them during the relief. Lyons was moving up the line with his ammunition carrier when the pair were caught by the blast of an exploding German trench mortar, killing both men instantly. Aged 26 at the time of his death, Lyons was given a hasty battlefield burial and was later reinterred at the nearby Bancourt British Cemetery. A small epitaph from his grieving mother appears on his headstone: “A credit to his uniform. Our hero fell & so we mourn”.

George Lyons is 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 George Lyons, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section