The AIF Project

John George HAMMOND

Regimental number1951
Place of birthCastlemaine, Victoria
SchoolCastlemaine State School, Castlemaine, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
Address313 Douglas Parade, Newport, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation34
Height5' 6.5"
Weight134 lbs
Next of kinSister, Mrs E R Barnes, 313 Douglas Parade, Newport, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed in the Militia at Ballarat (discharged on leaving the district).
Enlistment date11 January 1915
Place of enlistmentSwan Hill, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name8th Battalion, 5th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/25/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A20 Hororata on 17 April 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll8th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 20 September 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death37
Age at death from cemetery records37
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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
53
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Agnes HAMMOND. Native of Castlemaine, Victoria
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Joined 8th Bn at Gallipoli, 22 June 1915. Admitted to 25th Casualty Clearing Station, Imbros, 19 August 1915 (diarrhoea); transferred by HS 'Esmaraldas' to Mudros, 25 August 1915; admitted to No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, Lemnos, 27 August 1915. Embarked for England, 18 September 1915 (dysentery); admitted to 5th General Hospital, 26 September 1915. Gained 1st Class pass at Machine Gun course, Montevideo Camp, Weymouth, 20 January 1916. Embarked from Middle East, 22 February 1916; disembarked Alexandria, 5 March 1916; rejoined 8th Bn, Serapeum, 11 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 26 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 31 March 1916.

Wounded in action, 26 July 1916 (gun shot wound, right hand); admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 27 July 1916; transferred to England, 1 August 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 9 September 1916; rejoined Bn, 30 September 1916.

Admitted to 15th Australian Field Ambulance, 24 December 1916 (bronchitis); rejoined Bn, 4 January 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917. Buried in an isolated grave; grave subsequently lost.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, HAMMOND John George

Print format    


© The AIF Project 2024, UNSW Canberra. Not to be reproduced without permission.