The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2908) Lance Corporal Joseph Reid Gregory, 18 Infantry 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (2908) Lance Corporal Joseph Reid Gregory, 18 Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2908 Lance Corporal Joseph Reid Gregory, 18 Infantry Battalion, AIF
KIA 11 August 1918
Story delivered 4 May 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Joseph Reid Gregory.

Joseph Gregory was born on 6 September 1894, the third son born to Rebecca and John Gregory from the Naas valley, south of Canberra in the Brindabella ranges. The Gregory family were related to other prominent pioneering families in the district, including the Reads.

Joseph attended Naas Public School, before going on to work as a labourer and sheep farmer.

In March 1916, not long after he had turned 21, Joseph Gregory travelled to Goulburn in order to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force.

After initial training, on 25 October 1916 he left Sydney aboard the troopship Ascanius, bound for overseas service.

First arriving in England, Private Gregory undertook a period of training on the Salisbury Plain. In January the following year he reported to hospital with bronchitis, but by the following month he had recovered sufficiently to return to service.

Initially allotted to reinforcements to the 55th Battalion, Gregory was transferred to the 18th Battalion, landing in France on the 25th of March.

After suffering from a bout of trench fever, Gregory was back with his battalion as it took part in its first major battle at Pozieres between the 25 July and 5 August. After returning to the Pozieres trenches for a second time in late August, the battalion was withdrawn to Belgium to recover. In late September, he was promoted to lance corporal before the battalion returned to the Somme in October.

On 10 October 1917, Lance Corporal Gregory was wounded in action, suffering from a gas attack. After being evacuated to England and recovering at Norfolk Hospital, in February the following year he had a period of furlough before being detached for light duties.

In April he was in hospital with diphtheria and some heart problems, but recovered over the following months. By June, Gregory was well enough to be found guilty of being absent without leave, and in July he rejoined his unit in France.

By then, the German Spring Offensive was underway, and Australian units, including the 18th Battalion, had been thrown into the line to help blunt the attack around Villers-Bretonneux, which lay before the strategically important rail hub at Amiens. With this last desperate German assault turned back, the allied armies turned to the offensive and the 18th participated in the battles that pushed the German Army closer to defeat.

On 8 August, the first day of the battle of Amiens, allied forces advanced over 11 kilometres, one of the greatest advances of the war. The morale of the German troops had sunk to a point where large groups began to capitulate, leading a German general to refer to it as “the black day of the German Army”. With the introduction of mobile armoured warfare marking the end of trench warfare on the Western Front, the end of the war was finally in sight.

On 11 August, Lance Corporal Gregory was with a group of stretcher bearers near the village of Harbonnieres when a shell exploded about 120 metres away from him. A stray piece of shell struck him in the neck, and he died almost instantly.

Private Reynolds, who had left Australia with Gregory and come to France with him, was near him when he was killed. He helped move Gregory’s body to the Military Cemetery in Warfusee, where he was buried. A cross was put over his grave by the stretcher bearers of A Company.

Another of Gregory’s mates, Private Nelligen, wrote to Gregory’s sister about the shock his death had caused him. “We were always together”, he wrote, and “I was dumbfounded at the time to think we were through the thick of it for four days and [he was killed] just when things quietened down”.

After the war, his body was reburied in Villers-Brettoneux military cemetery.

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 Lance Corporal Joseph Reid Gregory, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Duncan Beard, Editor
Military History Section