Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout, Australia and NZ in WWI
 
Today, on this sunny morning on the old battlefields of the Somme which sleep in peace under the poppies and the flowering roses, I would like, with deep gratitude, to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 4250 Stanley Hirst Little who fought in the 46th Australian Infantry Battalion and died of his wounds 104 years ago, on August 14, 1916 at the age of 23 on the Somme front.

Stanley Hirst Little was born in 1893 in Sale, Gippsland, Victoria, Australia and was the son of Charles Edward and Lucy Victoria Little, of 20, Morang Road, Victoria. Stanley was educated at State School, Sale, Camberwell and Canterbury , Victoria.Before the outbreak of the war, Stanley was single, he lived at 18, Morang Road, Victoria and worked as a clerk.He was a member of St Stephen's Harriers, Richmond, Victoria and also of the Hawthorn Rowing Club.

Enlisted on July 24, 1915 in Melbourne at the age of 22 in the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion, 13th Reinforcement, he embarked with his unit from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A64 Demosthenes on December 29, 1915 and sailed for Egypt where he arrived at the beginning of February 1916 and was admitted to the 1st auxiliary general hospital in Heliopolis suffering from appendicitis on February 10 then, the following month, on March 21, 1916 he joined the 2nd Training Battalion in Ghezireh and was transferred to the 46th Australian Infantry Battalion at Serapeum on April 2, 1916 and joined the British Expeditionary Force at Alexandria on June 2, 1916 and embarked with his battalion for France.

Stanley arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles on June 8, 1916 and joined, with his battalion, the trenches of the Somme and the battle of Pozieres. Unfortunately it was in Pozieres that Stanley met his destiny, on August 14, 1916, while they were ready to come out of their trenches for an attack, a shell fell near Stanley and his comrades, Stanley was severely wounded in the abdomen and was evacuated to the 12th Australian Field Ambulance but died a few hours later.

Today, Stanley Hirst Little rests in peace with his comrades and brothers in arms who fell here and who today are all united in the silence of these flowered lands. His grave bears the following inscription "In loving memory of Stanley , mother and Ida, Hawthorn, Victoria ".
Stanley, young and brave you were when the war, in its turmoil, broke out, far from your country, your family, answering the call of your heart to serve your country, proudly wearing the uniform alongside your friends , of your comrades, who united as a family, all left together with a smile lighting up their faces and hope guiding their hearts.Young and admirable of courage, it is all together that you fought on the soil of France, making facing bullets and death raining down from the sky in the shrill cry of shells, facing death day after day alongside your friends with whom you had an exceptional sense of humor to remove the fear from your hearts and to attempt to forget the horrors of war, yes Stanley, I feel a very deep admiration for you and for all the men who fought with you in this hell, going to the assault under the bullets which unjustly mowed down the lives of so many young men trying to go forward through the fury, the pain and the cries of the wounded, through those fields of death, fields of mud, fields scarified by barbed wire in which so many men have fallen, you have seen and lived what no men should see or experience, and yet you did your duty bravely, all together you fought in the most beautiful spirit of comradeship, fighting and falling together in these fields which today have become peaceful and in which I walk with great respect, and still overcome with emotions, with a great sense of respect and admiration, thinking with sadness of all those young lives that were shattered and all of these families that the war destroyed, so today, I want to be there for you to honor your memory, to share your story, to try to put a name and a face on all these men who, like you, gave all they had precious to us and we will always be grateful to you, we will never forget all you have done and sacrificed for us so that humanity can live in peace today. your name, Stanley, will live forever, in our hearts and in our thoughts.Thank you with all my heart.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.