The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (3326) Private Hugh Grahame Henderson, 35th Australian 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 Craig Berelle, the story for this day was on (3326) Private Hugh Grahame Henderson, 35th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

3326 Private Hugh Grahame Henderson, 35th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
DOW 4 April 1918
Story delivered 23 December 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Hugh Grahame Henderson.

Hugh Henderson was born on 23 April 1899 to Stephen and Helen Henderson in Sutton Forest, New South Wales. The family moved to Hunter’s Hill, a suburb of Sydney, where Hugh attended Sydney Grammar School.

Hugh’s older brother, Ronald, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. Perhaps following his example, Hugh enlisted in the AIF in July 1917. His parents gave their consent for him to be sent overseas on active service, which was needed as he was less than 21 years of age. He trained for a short time in Australia before sailing on the transport ship Miltiades in August, arriving in Glasgow in October. Henderson then entered Durrington training camp in south-west England. Soon after his arrival in camp, Henderson caught mumps, and he spent the remainder of October recovering in hospital.

Henderson sailed to France in February 1918 and joined the 35th Australian Infantry Battalion, which had spent the winter training and regrouping near the border with Belgium. Towards the end of March, the Germans launched a large-scale assault, known as the German Spring Offensive. The 35th Battalion was rushed south to the village of Cachy on the Somme River.

At the end of March, the unit moved to the nearby village of Villers-Bretonneux, where a German attack was expected. The attack began in the early hours of the morning of 4 April 1918, with the Germans shelling the town and the front lines before launching a large infantry attack. During the fighting, Henderson was wounded in the leg and had to be evacuated from the battlefield.

He was able to walk with the aid of another man to the field ambulance. Henderson was waiting to be taken to the casualty clearing station with other wounded soldiers when a German high explosive shell landed in the midst of the men, and he was killed. He was 18 years old.

His brother, Lieutenant Ronald Henderson MC, of the 18th Battalion, was killed in action five days after Hugh died. The two brothers are buried side by side in Adelaide Cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux.

Hugh Henderson’s parents suffered further pain when the package containing his personal effects was lost. It was bound for Australia on the steam ship Barunga when that ship was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Cornwall in July 1918. British destroyers were soon on the scene and managed to rescue all aboard, but the personal effects of Henderson, and about 5,000 other Australian soldiers who had died on the Western Front, were lost.

Private Hugh Grahame Henderson 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 Private Hugh Grahame Henderson, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section