| Regimental number | 2596 |
| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | Camden, New South Wales |
| School | Cleveland Street Public School, New South Wales |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Bank clerk |
| Address | 107 Spencer Road, Mosman, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 33 |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs M.K. Garling, 107 Spencer Road, Mosman, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 13th Battalion, 8th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/30/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A54 Runic on |
| Regimental number from Nominal Roll | Commissioned |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Lieutenant |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 45th Battalion |
| Promotions |
2nd Lieutenant Unit: 45th Battalion Promotion date: |
| Recommendations (Medals and Awards) |
Mention in Despatches Awarded, and promulgated, 'London Gazette', Second Supplement No. 29890 (2 January 1917); 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 103 (29 June 1917). Recommendation date: |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Messines, Belgium |
| Age at death | 35 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 35 |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), 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 | 139 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Mr C.W. and Mrs M.K. GARLING. Native of Camden, New South Wales |
| Family/military connections | Brothers: 29082 Sergeant Gerald GARLING, 4th Field Artillery Brigade, returned to Australia, 8 July 1919; 2151 Pte Phillip GARLING, 20th Bn, returned to Australia, 1 November 1917; 629502 Corporal Frederick Hubert GARLING, 47th Bn (British Columbia Regiment), Canadian Expededitionary Force, killed in action, Arras, 1917, 5 May 1917. |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Joined 13th Bn, Mudros, and reverted to Private, 23 October 1915. Appointed Lance Corporal, Gallipoli, 8 November 1915. Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 3 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Promoted Corporal, 4 January 1916. Admitted to hospital, 18 February 1916 (tonsillitis); discharged to duty, 22 February 1916. Transferred to 45th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 24 February 1916. Promoted Sergeant, 4 March 1916. Commissioned as 2nd Lt, 12 March 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 2 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 8 June 1916. Promoted Lt, 18 August 1916. Reported as missing in action, 7 June 1917; subsequently listed as killed in action. Lt R.B. KERR, Assistant Adjutant, 45th Bn, reported (date not recorded): 'Lt L. Garling was killed by Machine Gun fire in the battle of MESSINES on 7.6.17. He was not buried by this Unit and there is no record of his having been buried.' 2371 Pte T. AITCHISON, 45th Bn, stated, 1 September 1917: 'At Messines on 7th June I saw Lt Garling killed. We were in our new front line receiving prisoners at the time. Shortly afterwards we had to retire, but again advanced on the 8th and Lieut. Garling's body was buried on the night of 8/9th June.' 3833 Pte P. LAURIE, 45th Bn, stated, 14 August 1917: 'I saw Lt Garling dead on the 7th June one thousand yards over on the other side of Messines Ridge on ground that has just been taken from the enemy.' Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
