Youngest Bugler Sounds the Final Last Post Ceremony of the Year

Jackson Boyd first sounded the bugle at the Australian War Memorial’s Last Post Ceremony as a teenager.

Five years on, the youngest bugler to perform at the ceremony has sounded The Last Post almost 300 times.

“I started performing at the Australian War Memorial when I was 15 and it has become a big part of my life,” he said.

“The first time I was so nervous. It is a solo performance and you can’t hide behind anyone. Every note can be heard, good or bad.”

Each ceremony shares the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour. To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 3,600 ceremonies featuring individual stories of service from colonial to recent conflicts.

Memorial Director Matt Anderson said: “The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service.

“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died, but we also tell the stories of who they were when they lived and of the families who loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.”

Dan Hiscock, who sounded the bugle at the first Last Post Ceremony ten years ago, is now the Memorial’s Assistant Manager of Visitor Services and regularly performs.

“The Last Post is now associated with remembrance, but it was originally a bugle call to sound the end of the day’s activities in the military. It is a fitting way to end each day at the Memorial,” he said.

“It is a privilege to be able to commemorate our fallen and, as the Memorial’s founder Charles Bean so eloquently put it, to guard the record which they themselves made. The music is such an evocative element of this ceremony, people have an emotional response to the sound of the Last Post.”

The first official ceremony, held 10 years ago on 17 April 2013, commemorated the service and sacrifice of Private Robert Poate, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2012.

The final Last Post Ceremony of the year will feature the Memorial’s youngest bugler, Jackson Boyd.

“It feels very important to play,” he said. “Every ceremony is moving, especially the First and Second World War ones, but one of the most moving for me was when the Memorial honoured an Afghanistan veteran and his whole family was gathered there.”

The final Last Post Ceremony of the year will be held on Sunday, 31 December, at 4.45pm and will tell the story of Raymond Ernest Dallwitz.

From January 1 2024, the Last Post Ceremony will have a new start time of 4:30 pm.

Book your free ticket here.