The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (SX34059) Sapper Denby Eric Grasby, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (SX34059) Sapper Denby Eric Grasby, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, Second World War.

SX34059 Sapper Denby Eric Grasby, 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers
Killed in training accident 21 May 1945
Story delivered 26 July 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Sapper Denby Eric Grasby.

Born on 2 December 1926, Denby Grasby was the son of Eric and Edna Grasby of Ambleside, a small town in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The town where he grew up is today known as Hahndorf. Like many German place names in Australia, Hahndorf was renamed during the First World War, however Hahndorf was later reinstated in the late 1930s.

Grasby worked as a carpenter and joiner before volunteering for service in the Second Australian Imperial force shortly after his eighteenth birthday in February 1945. Denby’s father, Eric Grasby, a veteran of the First Australian Imperial Force from the First World War, also served in the Second Australian Imperial Force, holding the rank of warrant officer.

After enlisting, Denby Grasby was to the 1st Training Battalion, Royal Australian Engineers, at the large Australian Army training base at Kapooka.

In the afternoon of 21 May 1945, two groups were crowded within a dugout for a routine demolition training exercise on the preparation of hand charges: one of 22 trainees and two instructors, and a smaller squad of three men and one instructor. Inside the dugout were 110 pounds of explosives that were stored for day’s training exercise. In circumstances that remain unknown to this day, the explosives ignited. In the explosion, 24 men were killed instantly, two died of injuries shortly afterwards, and two more were severely injured.

Sapper Denby Grasby was one of those killed in the accident. He was 18 years old.

A mass funeral was held for the men in Wagga Wagga on 24 May. Thousands of people lined the route of the funeral parade. The 26 flag-draped coffins were carried on four army trucks. The cortege included over 100 military vehicles carrying members of the Army and Air Force. The dead were buried in the Wagga Wagga War Cemetery.

Grasby’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among almost 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Sapper Denby Eric Grasby, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Lachlan Grant
Historian, Military History Section