The AIF Project

Stanley William GRITTEN

Place of birthLondon England
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationSecretary
AddressSydney University, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Next of kinBrother-in-Law, C E Campbell, 56 Julian Avenue, Acton, London, England
Rank on enlistmentLieutenant
Unit name20th Battalion, 10th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/37/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A67 Orsova on 11 March 1916
Rank from Nominal RollLieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll2nd Machine Gun Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Military Cross


For displaying conspicuous coolness and ability in carrying out the tasks allotted to him particularly during S.O.S. alarm when he rendered excellent services.
Recommendation date: 13 May 1917

FateKilled in Action 10 October 1919
Age at death from cemetery records25
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 31), 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
118
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Walter and Louisa GRITTEN, 32 Highbury Place, London, England. Native of London
Medals

Military Cross

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He took an active part in reorganizing the stragglers of three battalions, and displayed high courage in leading them forward. He proved himself a cool, capable officer, with sound judgment.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 189
Date: 8 November 1917

Other details

War service: Western Front

Medals: Military Cross, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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