David Gibson Jude BADGER

Regimental number1880
Place of birthPeterborough, South Australia
SchoolPeterborough High School, South Australia
ReligionBaptist
OccupationClerk
Addressc/o H J Badger, Petersburgh, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Next of kinMother, Mrs Angelina Badger, Main Street, Petersburgh, South Australia
Enlistment date24 May 1915
Rank on enlistmentActing Corporal
Unit name27th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/44/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board RMS Morea on 26 August 1915
Regimental number from Nominal Roll1880A
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll10th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularFather forwarded newspaper cutting to AWM. "My dear mother, father, brothers, and sisters - When you see this I'll be dead; don't worry. I did my best to fight our foes. Try to think I did the only possible thing, as I tell you I would do it again if I had the chance. Send someone else in my place. Your loving son and brother on active service. DAVE G. BADGER." Father wrote on the Roll of Honour circular: "As a direct result of this letter, 8 men joined the AIF."
FateKilled in Action 21 August 1916
Place of death or woundingMouquet Farm, Pozieres, France
Date of death21 August 1916
Age at death from cemetery records20
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
58
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Herbert James and Angelina Badger, Fife Avenue, Torrens Park, Mitcham, South Australia
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal