Eric Newman HAGGAR

Regimental number797
Place of birthSarsfield, Victoria
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationCarpenter
AddressSarsfield, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation22
Next of kinMother, Mrs I Haggar, Sarsfield, Victoria
Enlistment date19 March 1915
Rank on enlistmentSergeant
Unit name24th Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/41/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 10 May 1915
Regimental number from Nominal RollCommissioned
Rank from Nominal RollLieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll21st Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Distinguished Conduct Medal (Awarded Meritorious Service Medal?)


For marked ability as a subordinate leader during operations from March 1916 onwards, showing pluck, endurance and zeal.
Recommendation date: 15 September 1916

Mention in Despatches


Awarded, and promulgated, 'London Gazette', second Supplement, No. 29890 (2 January 1917); 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 103 (29 June 1917).

Other details from Roll of Honour CircularEnlisted 19/3/15 - 24th Battalion; Sgt 28/4/15; T/CSM 5/8/16; Transferred to 21st Battalion 18/10/16; 2LT 18/10/16; LT 5/2/17
FateKilled in Action 23 March 1917
Age at death23
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
93
Family/military connectionsBrother: 5106 Pte Clarence Mortimer HAGGAR, 59th Bn, returned to Australia, 2 April 1918.