Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout

Pte 4752 Aubrey Ernest Peacock 
20th Australian Infantry Battalion,
A Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division
 
In the fields of the Somme, season after season, poppies grow which remind us that here, more than a hundred years ago, these now silent lands were covered with blood that millions of men poured side by side in the no man's land and in the barbed wire in which they fell caught too early by the fire of the rifles and machine guns which they charged with bravery alongside their comrades alongside whom they stood proudly and alongside whom they rest today in peace in the white cities among the roses and the poppies which grow between the shadows of their graves which tell us the story of a whole generation of men who were united in the name of peace and freedom for which they gave their today and their lives for our tomorrow, for us who will always watch over them with infinite gratitude, with love so that they will never be forgotten and live forever present in our thoughts and hearts where their faces and their names will be remembered forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today and his life for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 4752 Aubrey Ernest Peacock who fought in the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion, A Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, and who was killed in action 105 years ago, on November 10, 1916 at the age of 20 on the Somme front.

Aubrey Ernest Peacock was born in 1896 in Perthville, New South Wales, and was the son of Jonathan Peacock, of Dunlop Street, Parramatta, New South Wales. Aubrey was educated at Parramatta Public School, New South Wales, and after graduation, served in the Senior Cadets then in the Citizen Forces for a year and a half and before the outbreak of the war, worked as a clerk.

Aubrey enlisted on December 20, 1915 in Bathurst, New South Wales, in the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion, 12th Reinforcement, as Acting Corporal and after a four month training period he was reverted to the rank of Private and embarked with his unit from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on April 13, 1916 and sailed for England.

In early August 1916 Aubrey arrived in England and joined the 5th Training Battalion at Rollestone on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, and the following month, on September 9, he embarked with his battalion and proceeded overseas for France.

On September 10, 1916, after a quiet journey through the English Channel, Aubrey arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples where the next day he joined the 2nd Australian Divisional Base Depot and the following month, October 7, proceeded to join the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion in Steenvoorde (Hauts-De-France) where they were billeted until October 11 then marched for Poperinghe, Belgium on October 12, Reninghelst on October 15 then returned to France at Noordpeenne on October 18 and on October 25, were sent to the Somme and arrived at Pont-Remy then marched through Ailly, Ribemont where they bivouacked until November 4 then joined Mametz Wood on November 5 and two days later, on November 7, Aubrey and the 20th Battalion joined the front line in Flers and occupied the "Switch Trench", relieved the 18th Australian Infantry Battalion on November 9 but unfortunately, it was the next day,on November 10, 1916 that Aubrey met his fate.
On November 10, 1916, in Flers, while he was in the "Switch Trench", Aubrey was making a cross for one of his friends who was killed when the German artillery opened fire and Aubrey was hit by shell that killed him instantly.He was first buried by his comrades near a position called "Turk Trench" and a few years after the war, was re-buried and today he rests in peace with his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "He died as he lived, nobly."

Aubrey, more than a hundred years ago you left your home, the arms and the love of your loved ones and answered the call to duty with courage and determination in the prime of your life that you sacrificed in the trenches and the mud of the Somme in which millions of men fought who gave their today beyond the barbed wire in which they fell in the name of peace and freedom which gathered them under the same uniform around common causes which guided them to through the fields of poppies which became red with blood under the fire of the machine guns which spit lead rains and death against which were broken thousands of waves of young boys who moved forward alongside their friends, their brothers without regard for their own lives and who paid for every step forward with thousands of lives and bloodbaths that friends and enemies shed on devastated land, pulverized and plowed incessantly by tons of shells under which were swept rows of trenches and men through a rain of blood which the mud spat out in terrible explosions which forever transformed once peaceful landscapes into fields of execution and death in a world gone mad which was consumed in the flames and darkness of a world war in which so many young lives, hopes and dreams were shattered.In this hell on earth that was their war, they stood side by side in the most beautiful spirit of camaraderie in the face of the inhumanity of death that awaited them over the parapets, they watched over each other with kindness in the face of the suffering and fury that surrounded them and in unity, in the friendship that bound them, they found the courage to fight, they found in each other the strength to stand against bullets and shells , they remained strong and determined even when their friends fell around them, it was for each other that they did their duty and never took a single step back despite the horrors they shared and which they went through in the ardor of their youth.In the cold, with their knees deep in the mud, among the rats and the lice, gripped by the end and the thirst, weakened by the diseases they remained resolute and never abandoned their comrades who became their family, they looked straight ahead beyond the battlefield which they should soon cross and on which already lay lifeless thousands of their brothers who stretched their arms towards the sky, men who were young and the bullets mowed down at an unrelenting rate, these visions of nightmares were what they faced each day with courage and despite their fears, despite the apprehension of the next attack they stood ready beside their pals and behind their officers they climbed the wooden ladders, under the weak protection of their steel helmets and ran, charged bayonets forward through the shell holes with the terrible weight of the mud under their shoes when all hell broke down on them and one after the other, in silence, hit by bullets and shrapnel, they fell into the eternal shroud of poppies where their graves stand and which tell us the stories, the shattered destinies, the too short lives of a whole generation of heroes who, for their country and for France, gave their lives and over whom I would always watch faithfully, with care and respect, with love and gratitude so that their names live forever,so that they are never forgotten.Thank you so much Aubrey,for everything.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.