The Last Casualty

[Guest Biplane pilot]

Recently I was asked if it's known who may have been the last soldier KIA in The Great War--presumably on the western front. Many years ago I saw a seismograph printout of 11-11-18 indicating that artillery continued firing well after 1100 that morning. (Presumably some gunners all wanted the dubious honor of firing the last shell.) Undoubtedly The Last Casualty occurred after the formal cease-fire. Anybody heard such a report from either side of the lines?

[Terry Denham]

Depends on what you call the end of the Great War.

11.11.18 was only an armistice on the Western Front. Fighting officially continued in East Africa for a few more days before their armistice took effect.

Then fighting continued in Russia, Iraq, India etc for some time afterwards plus the men who died of wounds, battlefield clearance accidents and war induced illness.

The UK parliament did not declare the war over until 31.08.21 and so the last official casualties will be any men dying on that day but more died subsequently. The last casualty can never be named with any certainty.

[Bob Coulson]

Possibly the last man,

Sgt A G Harman - Royal Fusiliers - Died of heart failure - August 19th 1921.

Bob.

[chris basey]

This extract from the Blofield (Norfolk, UK) Deanery magazine of September 1923 speaks volumes:

"The death of 'Jack'Marler, from consumption, reminds us that the total number of victims of the War is still incomplete. He was a good sports-man and won the D.C.M. in the War for his bravery in the trenches. But his courage and endurance were never so strikingly manifested as in the months of his pain and increasing weakness. We commend his soul to God and pray that his widow and son may be comforted and blessed."

[Mark Abbott]

I have the MM awarded to 428355 L/Cpl (A/2 Cpl) Charles Hurst 423 Field Company RE. The SDGW cd shows him as KIA on 16 November 1918. His death is recorded by CWGC as the 16th and that he is buried in Ath Communal Cemetery. The war diary for that date states;

" Whole company at Ath, part of company moving mines at Ghislenghem."

I wonder if L/Cpl Hurst was killed whilst engaged in this mine clearing operation?

The recommendation for his MM is as follows:

"At Mesplaux Farm during the operations from the 9/15 April 1918, he displayed great courage and enterprise as a sniper. He constantly went right forward and got into places from where he was able to shoot numbers of the enemy although incurring heavy rifle and machine gun fire by so doing"

Does anyone know how I obtain a copy of his death certificate?

Mark

[mcderms]

There are a number of graves on the Western Front of men who died on 11-11-18. I seem to recall one hsot by a sniper at 10:45 - I'll post his name when I find it.

[Broznitsky]

A well-known candidate on the Western Front is 256265 Pvt George Lawrence Price 28 Bn Canadian Inf KIA 10:58am 11/11/1918.

It is not entirely clear why the patrol would cross the canal just before the official cease fire. Perhaps to see if the houses on the other side would make good billets or to see what the Germans were doing. It is recorded that a German machine gun had fired upon Price as he approached the bridge that crossed the canal and they went to search the house from which the firing came. The patrol rushed the house, but found only the owner and his family. The Germans had slipped out the back door just before the Canadians came in the front.

The Canadians moved to the next and again found it occupied, but no Germans. The occupant of the house told Price to be careful. The account of his death in the Mons City Museum states: 'Despite this advice, Price went out to attack the enemy with his Lewis machine gun, but he was mortally wounded by a bullet in the region of the heart. Art Goodmurphy recalled that a single shot was heard as he and Price stepped back into the street. Price half turned and slumped into Goodmurphy's arms. Art quickly dragged George back into the house. A neighbor, a young Belgian girl, saw Private Price fall. She risked her life to cross the street to come to his aide. The occupants of the house and the neighbor attended to Price, but to no avail. Private George Lawrence Price died at 10:58 a.m., just two minutes before the cease fire.

The above is borrowed from this site about the 28th Battalion. Quite a good site, by the way.

Peter in Vancouver

[Guest Biplane pilot]

Thank you one & all. The matter of "delayed deaths" certainly is a valid point: in recent months there's been efforts to add names of recent deaths to the Vietnam Memorial.

The continuing artillery fire on the W. Front after the 11 AM deadline prompts one to speculate how much the high command was aware of it--or cared.

[healdav]

The last French soldier to be killed during the war was going around telling people that a special soup would be served at 1100.

Apparently when the Cease Fie was to be sounded they had terrible trouble trying to find a bugler to sound it as it was four years since iot had been used and none of the war time recruits had been taught it!

[KAYJAY]

A Pilot of 55 Squadron, Captain Duncan Ronald Gordon Mackay died of wounds on 11/11/18.

He was severly wounded the previous day by shrapnel from anti-aircraft fire but managed to land his plane behind enemy lines. He apparently died just at the cease fire time as a Prisoner of War.

[Paul K]

This picture is a bit large, but this plaque is to commemorate the last soldier that supposedly died on 11/11/1918. As its already been stated, its that of Pte Price. It is placed on or close to the area that he was shot. I also have a picture of his grave stone if anyone is interested.

Paul K

[Dolphin]

To add a little to Kayjay's post, Capt D R G Mackay had served in the 2nd Public Schools Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers before being commissioned into the 13th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He transferred to the RFC in 1917 and went to No 55 Sqn as a DH4 pilot. On 12 April 1917, with 2Lt A E Watkinson as his observer, [then] 2Lt Mackay was flying A2412 when he lost his formation during a raid on Boue, forcing him to land at Rouen. Later that day he crashed at Evreux; A2412 was destroyed and both airmen were injured.

On 10 November 1918, Capt Mackay was flying F5725 with 2Lt H C T Gompertz as his observer when No 55 Sqn RAF (Independent Force) raided Cologne. Capt Mackay was fatally wounded over the Thionville-Metz area and 2Lt Gompertz had to land the aircraft behind German lines.

Previously, Capt Mackay and 2Lt Gompertz were credited with victories on 12 August 1918 (a Pfalz D.III over Vosges)), and 14 August (an Albatros D.V over Offenburg). Flying in F5725 on a reconnaisance mission on 3 November, they were credited with sending down an enemy aircraft (Fokker D.VII) of control over Metz-Monoy.

[KAYJAY]

Hi Dolphin,

Here is a little more about Captain D.R.G. Mackay.

Promoted from Pte. 631 19th London Regiment.

T/2/Lt. 02/06/16, (Argylls), Seconded to R.F.C. 05/01/17,

T/Lt. 01/07/17, Flight Commander & T/Captain 01/01/18

Wounded & P.O.W. 10/11/18. D.O.W. 11/11/18. (Age 23).

First arrived in France 14/11/15 with 19th London Regiment.

Postumously awarded D.F.C. 03/12/18, & M.I.D. 11/07/19.

Ken.

[Ian C]

The CWGC site states that;

George Edwin Ellison

Pte. L/12643

5th(Royal Irish) Lancers

KIA 11/11/18

Buried: St. Symphorien Military Cemetery

was probably the last battle casualty

Regards

IanC

[Guest Desmond6]

Anybody see National geographic programme on last week in UK - 'First and last' - featured a Londoner who was a cyclist scout at Mons as first BEF casualty and the Canadian 'Pte Price' mentioned above as the last. Quite an interesting programme. I think Paul Reed's face appeared somewhere ... or was that the Pozieres Programme on Discovery?

[Radar]

Living near Mons I can tell you that the usually names for the first and last Commonwealth soldiers killed during WW1 are :

The First was J.Parr Middlesex regiment who was first declared dead on the 23rd of August but later appeared to be killed two days before but nobody knows where or how because he and his team mate where on patrol and fired against Germans, Parr stayed behind to cover his mate departure and was never seen again until the troops came back in the region in 1918.

The last one for the English army was Private G.E. Ellison who was killed a few minutes before 11am not so far ago where Parr dissapeared in 1914.

The last one for the Allied troops and supposed to be the last one for the whole war on the western front is GL Price from the 28th Bn Canadian Inf 2minutes before 11am.