THE National War memorial’s new “Last Post” ceremony will be launched tomorrow afternoon.

The launch will include a reading by Australia’s most recent Victoria Cross recipient, Cpl Daniel Keighran VC.

The memorial has conducted a simple closing ceremony for a number of years, but its new director, Dr Brendan Nelson, has decided to significantly enhance and rename the ceremony.

In 2009, facing budget issues, the memorial controversially accepted TransAct sponsorship for the solemn closing ceremony at $25,000 a year.

The new “Last Post” ceremony will be held at the memorial every day at 4.50pm and will include a short account of the life and circumstances of one of the more than 102,000 Australians whose names are recorded on the Memorial’s Roll of Honour. Read by a uniformed member of the Australian Defence Force, these readings will be followed by the Ode and the playing of the “Last Post”.

For tomorrow’s official launch, Cpl Keighran will read an account of the life of Private Robert Poate, followed by the Ode. Private Poate, from the 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, was killed in Afghanistan last year.

The new ceremony will also be broadcast live via webcam daily on the memorial’s website.