The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2279) Private Percy Smedley Draper, 4th 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 (2279) Private Percy Smedley Draper, 4th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2279 Private Percy Smedley Draper, 4th Battalion, AIF
KIA 6 August 1915

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Percy Draper.

Percy Draper was born in 1881 in Clifton, a small town on the New South Wales south coast between Sydney and Wollongong. His parents, Frederick and Mary, had moved to Clifton shortly before Percy was born. Frederick went into business as a greengrocer and the family grew large; Percy ended up being the eldest surviving of ten children.

After attending nearby Scarborough Public School, Percy worked as a labourer, a carter, a butcher and a grocer, while acting as a lay preacher, and secretary of the Clifton School of Arts Committee. He also had some military experience in the Citizens Forces, being in charge of cadets in the Clifton area, serving with the 4th Regiment for a year, and for four years with the St. Georges English Rifle Regiment.

In 1910 he married Ellen Layden in Sydney and the couple began a family. Doris was born in 1910 and Frederick the following year, and Cecil and Thelma were born in 1913 and 1914. The couple’s first two children died very young, while their fifth and last, Percy Kitchener, was born in May 1915, just a few weeks before his father left for the war.

The war had broken out in August 1914. As a man of 33 years with three young children, Percy Draper likely resisted the urge to join up on grounds of family responsibilities. But the Anzacs landing on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, followed by the first casualty reports, may have changed his mind. Whatever his motivation, Draper joined the Australian Imperial Force on 1 May 1915 in Sydney.

Allotted to the 4th Infantry Battalion, he departed Sydney aboard the troopship Karoola with the battalion’s 6th Reinforcements on 16 June. There is some evidence he was initially made lance corporal, but at some point he reverted to the rank of private. Little is known of his military service, because it was so very brief. On 4 August 1915 he joined the 4th Battalion on Gallipoli, two days before they went into action at Lone Pine.

One of the key diversionary attacks opening the August Offensive, Lone Pine was a terrible affair. At dusk on 6 August the Australians went over the top against this formidable Turkish position. The Australians had to cross 50 to 100 metres of open ground before gaining the enemy trenches – many of which were roofed with logs. While ultimately successful, losses were very high. The Australians suffered over 2,000 casualties in just four days at Lone Pine.

Percy was initially reported missing. His family home in Australia made enquiries about whether he might have turned up in a Turkish prisoner of war camp or elsewhere, but no information was forthcoming. Finally, a battalion inquiry held in April the following year determined that he had been killed in action on 6 August. Two witnesses from his company confirmed he had been seen shot down and killed by enemy fire in the initial rush at Lone Pine. Percy Draper never made it to the Turkish trenches. He was 33 years old.

Today, his remains lie buried in the Lone Pine Cemetery on Gallipoli. His name is also listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

By war’s end his extended family at home in Australia was mourning the loss of five men. Percy Junior (or Percy Kitchener as he was known), born just weeks before his father set sail in 1915, also did not survive. Around the same time his father was listed as killed in action at Lone Pine, the child of just ten months died.

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

Craig Tibbitts
Historian, Military History Section