The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will be commemorating the service and sacrifice of Cowra Breakout veteran Private Charles Henry Shepherd at the Last Post Ceremony on Monday 5 August, the 80th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout.
“Charles Shepherd was born on 18 February 1913 in Sydney,” Australian War Memorial historian Rachel Caines said. “Little is known of his early life. By 1937, he was living in Young, NSW, where he married Linda Irene and they had three daughters.
“When he enlisted in the Citizens Military Force on 30 December 1941, his medical examination found that he was blind in his left eye, and he was classified as suitable only for base or garrison service.
“On 1 January 1942, Charles joined the 16th Garrison Battalion and marched out to Hay, where the battalion was stationed guarding Internment Camps 6, 7 and 8.
“In early 1943, he was transferred to the 22nd Garrison Battalion, which staffed Camp 12 at Cowra in mid-western NSW.
“In the early hours of 5 August 1944, Charles was stabbed to death by a Japanese prisoner of war during a mass escape from Camp B at Cowra. Charles Shepherd was 31 years old.
“Because Cowra was not considered a war zone at the time, his wife Linda was denied a widow’s pension. She was unable to provide for her three daughters, so they were made wards of the state.
“Private Charles Shepherd was buried in Cowra War Cemetery two days after his death.”
The Last Post ceremony is held at 4.30 pm every day except Christmas Day in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial.
Each ceremony shares the story behind one of 103,000 names on the . To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 3,800 ceremonies, each featuring an individual story of service from colonial to recent conflicts. It would take more than 280 years to read the story behind each of the 103,000 names listed on the Roll of Honour.
“The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service,” Memorial Director Matt Anderson said.
“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died. We also tell the stories of who they were when they were alive, and of the families who loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.
“The Last Post is now associated with remembrance but originally it was 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.”
The Last Post Ceremony honouring the service of Private Charles Henry Shepherd will be live streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page: .
The stories told at the Last Post Ceremony are researched and written by the Memorial’s military historians, who begin the process by looking at nominal rolls, attestation papers and enlistment records before building profiles that include personal milestones and military experiences.
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