The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (11) Driver Albert Oliver Norman, 18th 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 (11) Driver Albert Oliver Norman, 18th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF, First World War.

11 Driver Albert Oliver Norman, 18th Australian Infantry Battalion, AIF
DOW 16 September 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Driver Albert Oliver Norman.

Albert Norman was born in 1888 in Mittagong, near Bowral, New South Wales, the son of Margaret and Oliver Norman. Known as “Ollie”, he attended Glenquarry Public School. As a young man, he was a keen sportsman, and had a love for animals. He worked as a farmer, and served for four years in the 28th Australian Light Horse, a pre-war regiment raised in the Illawarra region.

Norman enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in early April 1915. With his knowledge of horses, he joined the transport section of the 18th Australian Infantry Battalion. After a short period of training in Australia, he embarked on the transport ship Ceramic from Sydney in June. On arrival in Egypt, the men of the transport section began training at the Australian army camp. In December, the 18th Battalion completed its evacuation from the Gallipoli peninsula, and the transport section was reunited with the remainder of the troops.

In March 1916, the unit sailed to Marseilles to join the fighting in France. The first major engagement for the battalion was at the village of Pozieres in July and August. This was a shocking introduction to the warfare of the Western Front. By the time the 2nd Division, of which the 18th Battalion was a part, was relieved in early August, about half of its men had been killed or wounded. Norman and his unit remained in reserve at Pozieres for the rest of August. The battalion was rested in the north near the relatively quiet Belgian border, but then moved back to the Somme sector for winter.

The role of the transport section was to move ammunition, food, and water to the front lines on horseback. As well as working with horses, Norman had experience as a pigeon handler. Pigeons were used during the war to convey messages between trenches.

As winter set in, Norman fell ill, and was evacuated, first to the New Zealand hospital in Amiens, and then to the British General Hospital at Étaples on the French coast. There he spent three months recuperating, and another month training, returning to his battalion at the end of March 1917.

During the summer months of 1917, the 18th Battalion was engaged in training to prepare troops for the conditions on the Western Front. They undertook several forest fighting exercises in woods in the reserve areas. The soldiers heard a lecture on the effects of German gas shells, and protective measures to take against them. There was also time for leisure activities. The battalion diary records days when the men were able to go swimming, and tracks their successful cricket season against the other battalions.
In September, the battalion moved north to Steenvorde, near the Belgian border. There they prepared to join the major British offensive in Flanders. The battles that made up this offensive are known collectively as the Third Battle of Ypres, with the first of these taking place at Menin Road.
On 16 September 1917, the transport section came under a German artillery barrage as it was taking ammunition to the front line in a convoy of pack horses. A shell landed near Norman, killing him and the horse he was leading. He was 28 years old.

Ollie Norman was buried where he fell by his comrades in the 18th Battalion. They also made a cross, but when they returned to the site after the fighting, they were unable to find the grave. He is now commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium, alongside 6,000 other Australian servicemen killed in Belgium who have no known grave.

In Australia, Norman was survived by his parents and family. In the absence of a known gravesite, his grieving mother refused to believe that he had been killed.
Driver Albert Oliver Norman 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 Driver Albert Oliver Norman, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section