The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (193) Private Mervyn Allen Lown, 13th 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 , the story for this day was on (193) Private Mervyn Allen Lown, 13th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

193 Private Mervyn Allen Lown, 13th Battalion, AIF
DOW 6 May 1916

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Mervyn Allen Lown.

Mervyn Lown was born in 1893 to Andrew and Margaret Lown of the Sydney suburb of Balmain. His father owned a grocery on Darling Street in Balmain, and was a warden of the nearby St. Mary’s Church of England. Mervyn was educated at Birch Grove School in Balmain, and later undertook training in experimental farming. In the end, however, he followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming an assistant grocer on Darling Street. Also like his father, Mervyn became closely associated with the local Church of England, serving as assistant secretary of the Sunday School.

Mervyn Lown enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914, the month after war broke out. He was posted to the newly-formed 13th Battalion, and left for active service overseas in late December. The 13th Battalion arrived in Egypt in February 1915, and continued training in the desert for several weeks.

Private Mervyn Lown landed on Gallipoli late in the afternoon of 25 April 1915. The battalion was immediately called on to help establish and defend the tenuous line on the heights above the beach. Within days, Mervyn was reasonably seriously wounded in the jaw, but refused treatment in order to avoid being in hospital and missing the battle.

In the days following the landing, the Anzac forces on Gallipoli were muddled and disorganised. With some battalions splitting up as soon as they landed, and the men working hard to establish a line whether they were in the right position or not, it took some days to reorganise.
Andrew Lown in Sydney was among those affected by the disorganisation caused by the desperate situation on Gallipoli. In August he was notified that Mervyn had been killed in action in early May. Almost immediately afterwards he received a second cable to say that his son was still alive, but wounded. Despite repeated cables seeking further information, Andrew Lown struggled to find out if his son was even alive or dead.

Fortunately for the Lown family, Mervyn had made a pact with his mate, Charles Boccard, also a private in the 13th Battalion. The two had exchanged addresses so that if one was killed, the other would be able to send the family in Australia a proper account of their death. In August 1915 Boccard’s letter arrived, confirming the worst.

Private Boccard wrote, “Mervyn was resting in a supporting trench … in an apparently safe place, at 11.30 on Thursday, May 6, when a shrapnel shell, coming from an unexpected direction, exploded quite close at hand … I was sitting within about three yards of Mervyn, and at once went over to him. He had been struck from right to left, high up on the skull, too high to disfigure him in any way, and yet too low to give him any chance of surviving.”

Although the stretcher-bearers initially refused to carry Lown down to the beach, deeming him “too far gone”, Boccard insisted, and talked one in to helping him take his mate to help. They arrived at the medical officer within 15 minutes of Lown being shot, but even then it was too late, and he died shortly afterwards.

Boccard wrote to Lown’s parents that “the only consolation for his relatives and many friends lies in the fact:—Firstly, that his death was painless; secondly, that he sustained no disfigurement; and, lastly, and chiefly, that not only did he die playing the game, but that from the day of his enlistment right up to his last moments he did his duty well, cheerfully, and bravely, earning thereby the esteem of his officers, and the unanimous affection of his comrades.”

Private Mervyn Lown was buried in or near Beach Cemetery, although the exact location of his grave has not been recorded. Today he is commemorated on a special memorial in the cemetery under the words “their glory shall not be blotted out”. He was 23 years old.

His name 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 Mervyn Allen Lown, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section