Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Known by his 24th Battalion comrades as 'Johnnie', Edgar Sydney Worrall was one of the very last (of 31 men, 3 signallers and 3 officers) to leave the Lone Pine post in the early hours of December 20, 1915 and one of the last evacuated from Gallipoli.

In the Red and White Diamond: Official History of the 24th Battalion author Sergeant W.J. Harvey MM recalls that .... "Ordering the men away at 2.40am, the officers went along the line to see that all was clear. At one post Lieutenant George Stanley McIlroy, https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/62078 saw a figure crouching on the parapet. Covering him with a revolver, he challenged him quietly, and to his astonishment found one of his own men  having, as he said "just one more pot at them." This man was Corporal 'Johnnie' Worrall (afterwards Second Lieutenant), who was killed in Belgium in 1917. Then the sounds of bombs exploding caught the officer's ear, and hurrying to another post he found another of his party, all alone, bestowing the new Mills bombs on the enemy as a parting gift. "Its a pity not to use them," he said in explanation; 'they're great." That man was Jim [Joe] Egan (killed in 1917)" https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/253144.   

Ironically, both Worrall and Egan were killed at Broodseine Ridge in the same action on 4 October 1917.

One of six children of the Reverand Henry Worrall and his wife Elizabeth (nee Hodges), 'Johnnie' Worral enlisted at Melbourne in June 1915 and landed on Gallipoli in early October. His eldest brother, Flight Lieutenant Henry Vernon Worrall DSC CdeG [1888-1957] served with the Royal Naval Air Service in the North Sea and Middle East during the war.

Following his evacuation from Gallipoli, Worrall was sent to France with the 24th Battalion and elevated to the rank of Sergeant. In late June 1916, near Armentieres, he was wounded in the right leg.

Recovering from his wounds he attended officer training and in June 1917 was appointed Second Lieutenant in the 24th Battalion.

Second Lieutenant Edgar Sydney Worrall was killed in action on October 4, 1917 in the assault on Broodseine Ridge. He was fatally hit at the jumping off trench around 6 a.m. by pieces from a high explosive shell. Sergeant W.J. Harvey MM recalls in the Red and White Diamond that ..... "At 5.30 a.m. when everything appeared to be going well (awaiting zero hoiur at 6.00 a.m.) the Boche put down a heavy barrage which made the situation extremely painful for our waiting men, who hung on impatiently for the moment of action. Casualties quickly mounted up as the enemy pounded our positions with high explosives, including minenwerfers and shells up to 8 inches. The heaviest shell fire the Battalion had encountered on a jump-off line. Forty of our troops were killed, including two officers (Lieut. F.W.J. Murphy and 2nd Lieut. John Worrall) and the Battalion strength was reduced by fully 30 per cent, before the assault commenced."

Second Lieutenant Worrall was initially buried where he fell, southeast of the brick kiln, Zonnebeke. His remains were later exhumed and reinterred at Aeroplane Cemetery, Belgium. 

The depth of loss to the family was immense, demonstrated by his second eldest brother, Norman naming, in 1918, his second child, Edgar Sydney in Johnnie's memory.

References:

Red and White Diamond: History of the 24th Battalion A.I.F.

https://archives.passchendaele.be/en/soldier/4577