Gleniffer resident Kathy Mortimer travelled to Canberra last week with her husband Brian to attend a very special occasion for herself and other extended family members.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Friday November 3 marked 100 years since the death of her Great Uncle SGT Tom Mountain, who served in the Australian Imperial Force’s 1st Australian Light Horse Regiment in World War 1 from August 1914 until his death.
Family members gathered at the Australian War Memorial as Tom’s life was commemorated in a moving 30-minute Last Post Ceremony at the Pool of Reflection.
Tom was born in Glen Innes and he was unmarried when he left for the war, but descendants from NSW and Queensland included one niece in her 90s, Kathy and 10 other great nieces and nephews, plus offspring.
After the National Anthem, the Lone Piper played the Lament - 'Flowers of the Forest’ during which several family members laid wreaths beneath a photo of Tom taken before he left for the Middle East.
Tom’s eulogy was read by a member of the Australian Defence Force - in this case, an Able Seaman. The service concluded with the reciting of ‘The Ode’, & the Bugler played ‘The Last Post’.
Following the service, family members gathered to exchange information and photos of their great uncle.
On enlisting Tom sailed to Egypt with his regiment, arriving on 8 December 1914. However, by May 1915 they were deployed without their horses to reinforce the infantry at Gallipoli.
Tom was injured in the August offensive which was the last major effort made by the Allied forces to take the Gallipoli Peninsula by attempting to seize the high regions along the Sari Bair Range that dominated the Gallipoli Peninsula.
To help achieve their objective, a major diversionary attack was planned south of the Sari Bar Range at Lone Pine which was initially successful but with great loss of life.
Smaller diversionary attacks, including the one Tom was involved in near the area known as the Chessboard, resulted in heavy casualties.
The fate of the Light Horsemen, in particular those of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment was immortalised in the film Gallipoli, directed by Peter Weir.
With the withdrawal of the Anzacs from Gallipoli in December 1915, the majority of the soldiers of the Light Horse returned to the Middle East.
Tom was involved in battles to defend the Nile Valley, the Suez Canal, Romani, Maghdaba, Rafa, the Sinai, and Gaza (the second battle).
Following the charge of Beersheba on 31 October 1917 (which was part of the third and successful battle for Gaza) by the 4th & 12th Light Horse Regiments, Tom’s regiment was involved in the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe a short distance from Beersheba where there was still strong Turkish resistance.
It was here that he was killed. He is buried in the Beersheba Military Cemetery and one day Kathy hopes to visit his grave.
The Last Post Ceremony in Canberra was introduced by the Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson in 2013 after attending the similar service at the Menin Gates in Ypres in Belgium.
There a service is conducted every evening to honour the thousands of fallen Allied soldiers who helped defend Belgium. The service commenced on the 11 November 1929 and has occurred continuously since, except for the period May 1940 - September 1944 when the town was occupied by German troops.
In Canberra, a service is conducted almost every afternoon to honour one of the more than 102,000 Australians who have died in armed conflict. People can make application to the Australian War Memorial to have their own family member honoured in such a ceremony.
