The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1418) Private Ernest Taylor, 14th 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 Greg Kimball, the story for this day was on (1418) Private Ernest Taylor, 14th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1418 Private Ernest Taylor, 14th Battalion, AIF
KIA 8 August 1915
Story delivered 24 September 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Ernest Taylor.

Ernest Taylor was born in Bundalong, Victoria, in 1884 to Charles and Annie Taylor. By the time the First World War began, the family had moved to Oaklands in New South Wales, where Ernest was working as a labourer.

He enlisted for service in the Australian Imperial Force at Yarrawonga on 3 October 1914, and after initial training, he joined the 14th Battalion at Broadmeadows. He and his unit embarked from Melbourne on 22 December aboard the transport ship Berrima.

After several months of training in the desert sands of Egypt, the 14th Battalion sailed to Lemnos in April to prepare for the Gallipoli campaign.

The 14th Battalion went ashore on Gallipoli during the afternoon of 25 April. Over the next week, the men worked hard, digging defensive positions and keeping the Ottoman troops at bay. Taylor was shot in the neck on 5 May and was evacuated to Egypt for treatment and recovery. However, his wound was not serious and he soon returned to Gallipoli.

After several months of stalemate, the allies launched the August offensive in an attempt to break out from the Anzac beach head. The 4th Brigade began its advance during the night of 6 August, but progress was slow. The following day found the men well short of their objectives and they struggled to hang on to their positions.

In an attempt to continue the advance towards Hill 971, the Australian troops attacked on the morning of 8 August. They never got close. The attack was a costly failure and the Australians were forced to withdraw, taking a number of the wounded and the dead back with them.

Among the fallen carried out was Taylor. A witness stated that he had seen Taylor get hit during the charge and that he didn’t get up.

Ernest Taylor was 31 years old. His remains were interred in the Norfolk Cemetery. He was listed as missing in action, but a court of enquiry, held in Egypt on the 1st of April 1916, found that he had been killed in action during the attack towards Hill 971.

After the end of the war, a graves registration team exhumed his remains and reinterred them in the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery. The exact location of the reburial was lost; instead, a memorial headstone was placed in the cemetery. Inscribed at the top of the headstone are the words, “Believed to be buried in this cemetery”. His mother had the following epitaph added to his memorial:

Their Glory Shall Not
Be Blotted Out

Ernest Taylor’s 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 Private Ernest Taylor, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Michael Kelly
Historian, Military History Section