The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will be commemorating the service and sacrifice of Hobart resident Lance Corporal Vivian Cyril Brooke at the Last Post Ceremony on 1 November 2024, marking the 110th anniversary of the first Australian convoy departing for the First World War.
“Vivian Brooke was born on 19 June 1887 in Hobart, the fourth of six children born to Robert and Amy Brooke,” Australian War Memorial historian Rachel Caines said.
“Brooke attended the Friends’ School, a Quaker-run co-educational school. He started work as a bank clerk in 1906, and was a member of the 1st Battalion of the Tasmanian Rangers.
“On 20 August 1914, Brooke enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, leaving Hobart with the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion on 20 October in HMAT Geelong A2. The battalion left Albany, Western Australia, with the first Australian convoy in November 1914, arriving in Alexandria, Egypt, on 9 December.
“On 25 April 1915, Brooke survived the landing at Anzac Cove and was promoted to lance corporal. The next day, he was part of an advance line of about 20 men making an attack on Ottoman positions south of Anzac Cove. A retreat was decided upon, but Brooke refused to retire and was not seen by his comrades again.
“An investigation found he had died in hospital in Turkey as a prisoner of war, most likely from shrapnel wounds sustained between 4 and 9 May 1915.”
Lance Corporal Vivian Brooke was 27 years old.
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 the 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 Lance Corporal Vivian Cyril Brooke 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.
HANDOUT images:
Please click on the following link to download the attachments:
The attachments are available until: Monday 11 November 2024.
