The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (4455) Private Robert Castle, 46th 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 Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (4455) Private Robert Castle, 46th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

4455 Private Robert Castle, 46th Battalion, AIF
KIA 15 February 1917

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Robert Castle.

Robert Castle was born in January 1887 in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, to William and Jeanie Castle. When he was a child, Robert’s family moved to Blantyre in Scotland for some years, before settling in Carlisle in Cumberland. Robert was educated at a boarding school, and went on to work as a cloth finisher at Messrs Ferguson Brothers Holme Head Works. He also served five years in the military, rising to the rank of corporal in the 4th Battalion, the Border Regiment. Robert was raised in a devout Christian family, and was a member of the local Methodist church and choir in Carlisle, who praised him for his diligence and enthusiasm.

Robert Castle came to Australia at the age of 26, taking up poultry farming in the Koroit district, Victoria. He quickly became an active member of the local Methodist church and Christian Endeavour society. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Rechabites, an organisation that promoted temperance and sobriety. It was later reported that “his influence was felt by his companions and friends” in these circles.

Robert Castle enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 4th of August 1915, exactly a year after Britain declared war on Germany. He spent the next six months in training camps in Australia, possibly working as a musketry instructor. Private Robert Castle finally left Australia for overseas service with reinforcements to the 14th Battalion in February 1916 on board the troopship Ballarat.

Castle arrived in Egypt on 22 March 1916. There the AIF was completing a period of reorganisation and training in preparation for transfer to the Western Front. Castle was sent on to France in early June 1916, refusing promotion twice, and by late July had been transferred to the 46th Battalion in the field. Over the next seven months he would spend almost as much time in hospital as he did on the battlefield – first with a sprained ankle and later with the flu. By October he had returned to the 46th Battalion for the second time, and spent the bitterly cold winter of 1916 and 1917 rotating in and out of the front line. Castle wrote letters to his friends in Australia, in which “he spoke of the terrible life in the trenches, and the great loss of life, and how frequently he had received slight wounds”.

On 11 February 1917 Private Robert Castle was a member of a small raiding party led by Lieutenant William Syme that was charged with extending the battalion’s position in a location called Cloudy Trench. The operation, which re-established a connection with the battalion to the right, was “most successful”, with about 200 metres of trench captured for the cost of two men killed and four wounded.

One of the men wounded was Private Robert Castle. He was carried from the battlefield with a shattered arm and wounded face, taken to the 45th Casualty Clearing Station. Despite the treatment he received there, Private Robert Castle died of his wounds on 15 February 1917. A Methodist minister was with him as he died, and said “he passed away trusting in God, his duty nobly done.”

Although Robert Castle had spent little more than two years in Australia, he had quickly become part of the community in Koroit. A memorial service was held for him in the Koroit Methodist Church, during which “the deepest sympathy was expressed for the parents and other members of the family in the old land, and for friends and loved ones in Australia.”

Private Robert Castle is buried in the Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension near the French town of Albert. He was 30 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 Robert Castle, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Section