The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of Sergeant Victor Alexander Douglas McPhee, 4th Australian Field, 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 Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on Sergeant Victor Alexander Douglas McPhee, 4th Australian Field, First World War.

Sergeant Victor Alexander Douglas McPhee, 4th Australian Field Ambulance, AIF
Killed in Action 10 April 1918
Story delivered 10 April 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sergeant Victor Alexander Douglas McPhee.

Victor McPhee was born in Moe, a town in Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, the son of Archibald and Sarah McPhee.

After finishing his education, he went on to work as a bank accountant. McPhee enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 16 September 1914, just weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. The 24-year-old was allotted to the field ambulance, which, as part of the medical corps, was mostly made up of stretcher-bearers and drivers.

Victor’s brother, James, who was also a bank accountant, soon followed in his footsteps, also joining the field ambulance.

The brothers left Melbourne together aboard the troopship Berrima just a few days before Christmas 1914, bound for the Middle East.

After time in the training camps in Egypt, the McPhees were on to Gallipoli, landing late on 25 April. At the end of July Victor became ill with colitis, and was not able to rejoin his unit until late October. Shortly after returning to the peninsula he was struck down with mumps, but stayed on Gallipoli until the evacuation of Anzac in December.

Back in Egypt, the AIF went through a period of expansion and reorganisation, preparing to take part in the fighting on the Western Front. After recovering from a variety of illnesses received while living and working in the unsanitary conditions at Gallipoli, Victor McPhee was sent to France in June 1916 as part of the newly raised 4th Field Ambulance. He was promoted to corporal shortly afterwards, as the 4th Division first moved into the “nursery sector” near Armentières. Its stay there was brief, however, and soon it was accompanying the First and Second Divisions to the Somme sector, engaged in fighting at Pozières, Mouquet Farm, and Flers.

The bitter winter of 1916 and 1917 took its toll on the men, and McPhee was admitted to hospital with bronchitis the day after Christmas, and evacuated to England shortly afterwards. After his recovery and some leave, he returned to duty.

McPhee was enjoying spending some leave time in England again in March 1918, but was recalled after three days. The German Spring Offensive was underway, and the fighting in France was fierce. On 10 April 1918, just a few weeks after McPhee had returned to the front, he was killed by heavy shelling around Hebuterne, where the 4th Field Ambulance had established a stretcher bearer relay post. He was buried nearby at Couin Communal Cemetery in France.

Victor’s brother James was awarded the Military Medal for bravery while in charge of a stretcher squad during the third battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele), and would return home to Australia after the war.
Victor McPhee was one of thousands of Australians who served quietly and inconspicuously, and who gave their lives in the process. He was 27 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 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 Sergeant Victor Alexander McPhee who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Emma Campbell
Researcher, Military History Section