Geelong resident and Second Lieutenant Andrew Ernest Ralph Barnfather will be honoured for his service and sacrifice at the Australian War Memorial’s Last Post Ceremony on Monday November 4.
Andrew Barnfather was born on August 6, 1891 in Geelong and was 26 when he was killed in WWI.
“Known as ‘Ralph’, he was one of twelve children born to Andrew and Maria Barnfather and was educated at Geelong College,” Australian War Memorial Director Matt Anderson said.
“After his schooling, Ralph was a member of the Light Horse militia. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force shortly after war was declared in 1914 and was allocated to A Squadron of the 4th Light Horse Regiment.
“In late May 1915, Barnfather and his comrades were deployed to Gallipoli without their horses, to act as infantry. In March 1916, Barnfather was transferred to the ranks of the newly formed 58th Australian Infantry Battalion and was promoted to second lieutenant. He embarked for the Western Front in June 1916.
“On 19 July, Barnfather’s unit was called into action near the French village of Fromelles in an attack which has been remembered as the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire military history. The 5th Division alone suffered more than 5500 casualties; among them was Second Lieutenant Ralph Barnfather, killed by enemy machine-gun fire at Fromelles.”
The Last Post ceremony is held at 4.30pm every day except Christmas Day in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial, Canberral.
Each ceremony shares the story behind one of 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour. To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 3800 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 ceremony will be live streamed to youtube.com/c/awmlastpost
