The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (6855) Private Roy Harold Napthaly, 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 Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (6855) Private Roy Harold Napthaly, 35th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

6855 Private Roy Harold Napthaly, 35th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
DOW 9 April 1918

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Roy Harold Napthaly.

Roy Napthaly was born in 1896 to Herbert and Annie Napthaly in Fremantle, Western Australia. He attended Scotch College in Perth, and when he had left school, his family moved to New South Wales, settling the Sydney suburb of Haberfield. Napthaly had an interest in sports and was a keen cricketer. He found employment as a pay clerk for the Australian Army at Victoria Barracks.

In April 1917, Napthaly enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. After three months of training, he embarked from Sydney on the transport ship Port Melbourne in July. He completed further training at the army camps on the Salisbury Plain in England until the end of the year.

In January 1918, Napthaly sailed to France and joined his unit, the 35th Australian Infantry Battalion. As Europe emerged from the grip of winter, the Germans launched what was to be their final assault of the war.

Known as the German Spring Offensive, it centred on a push towards the important rail hub city of Amiens in northern France. AIF units were rapidly brought south from the Belgian border to help defend this strategic point. All soldiers on leave from the 35th Battalion were recalled, and surplus gear was stored so that the unit could move quickly.

The 35th Battalion was positioned to defend the French village of Villers-Bretonneux, less than 20 kilometres east of Amiens. In early April, Napthaly’s company was resting behind the front line in billets when German artillery began shelling the village. When a shell landed on the house Napthaly was in, he was badly wounded. He was evacuated to a casualty clearing station, but he died of his wounds on 9 April 1918. He was 21 years old.

Roy Napthaly is buried in Namps-au-Val British Cemetery outside Amiens, alongside over 400 other Commonwealth soldiers of the First World War. In Australia, Napthaly was survived by his mother Annie and sisters, Ivy and Cissie. His grieving mother had the following epitaph inscribed on his headstone: “The sun went down while it was yet day”.

Private Roy Harold Napthaly 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 Roy Harold Napthaly, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section