The AIF Project

William BAILEY

Regimental number483
Place of birthBolton, Lancashire, England
SchoolSt Nathaniel's School, Plattbridge, Wigan, Lancashire, England
Age on arrival in Australia23
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMiner
Address51 Wolfram Street, Broken Hill, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation25
Height5' 9.5"
Weight156 lbs
Next of kinFather, Mr George Bailey, 432 Liverpool Road, Platbridge, Lancashire, England
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date24 August 1914
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll24 August 1914
Place of enlistmentAdelaide, South Australia
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name10th Battalion, H Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/27/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board Transport A11 Ascanius on 20 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll6th Division Infantry Details
FateKilled in Action 18 October 1917
Place of death or woundingBroodseinde, Passchendaele, Belgium
Place of burialNo Known Grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
149
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 2 March 1915; wounded in action, Gallipoli, and admitted to 15th General Hospital, Alexandria, 1 May 1915 (gun shot wound, foot); wounded in action, Gallipoli, 8 August 1915; admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, Anzac, 8 August 1915 (gun shot wound, left finger and face); transferred to hospital ship 'Dongola' 10 August 1915; admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 13 August 1915; transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, Cairo, 1 September 1915; discharged to duty, 7 Septmeber 1915; admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 18 September 1915 (tonsillitis); transferred to 2nd Convalescent Depot, Cairo, 25 September 1915; discharged to duty, 25 September 1915.

Allotted and proceeded to join 50th Bn, Zeitoun, 29 February 1916.

To be Lance Corporal, 21 May 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 12 June 1916.

To hospital sick, France, 25 June 1916.

To be Temporary Corporal, 24 July 1916.

Wounded in action, France, 15 August 1916; reverted to Lance Corporal due to wounding, 16 August 1916; admitted to 44th Casualty Clearing Station, 15 August 1916 (gun shot wound, arm); transferred to St John's Ambulance Hospital, Etaples, 21 August 1916; to England, 11 September 1916; admitted to Kitchener's Hospital, Brighton, England, 12 September 1916 (gun shot wound, chest); to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 1 November 1916; discharged on furlough, 1 November 1916, to report to No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 16 November 1916; marched into No 1 Command Depot, 18 November 1916; marched into No 4 Command Depot, 23 November 1916.

Found guilty at Court Martial, 26 February 1917, of being absent without leave from midnight 26 December 1916, to 6 pm, 9 January 1917: sentenced to 14 days' detention; forfeited a total of 62 days' pay.

Reverted to Private, 26 February 1917.

Transferred to and taken on strength, 70th Bn, 23 March 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 12 September 1917; marched into 4th Australian Divisional Base Dept, Havre, 13 September 1917; proceeded to join unit, 12 September 1917; rejoined unit, 1 October 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 18 October 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, BAILEY William

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