The AIF Project

Hugh BARR

Regimental number337
Place of birthLarna, Ireland
Place of birthLarne, Ireland
Age on arrival in Australia23
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationSeaman
AddressFremantle, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation30
Height5' 6.25"
Weight140 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Mararet Barr, Larne Harbour, Ireland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date7 January 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll18 January 1916
Place of enlistmentPerth, Western Australia
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name44th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/61/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A29 Suevic on 6 June 1916
Rank from Nominal RollTemporary Sergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll44th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 13 October 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres-Passchendaele sector, Belgium
Age at death29
Age at death from cemetery records30
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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
137
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Samuel and Margaret BARR, 1 Balneum Terrace, Larne Harbour, Co. Antrim, Ireland
Medals

Military Medal


Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 95
Date: 27 June 1918

Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked from Fremantle on board HT 'Suevic', 6 June 1916. Found guilty, 23 June 1916, of attempting to break ship 21 June 1916: awarded stoppage of pay 2/6. Found guilty, 25 June 1916, of (1) breaking ship, (2) absent without leave: awarded no leave and all guards and fatigues for remainder of voyage. Disembarked Plymouth, England, 21 July 1916.

Found guilty, 14 October 1916, of (1) disobeying a lawful command of his superior officer in that he left the ranks without permission and when ordered to return he refused to do so, (2) using obscene language to an NCO, Lark Hill, 11 October 1916: awarded 4 days' Field Punishment No 2; forfeited a total of 4 days' pay.

Found guilty, 22 November 1916, of being absent without leave from 12:00 midnight, 30 October 1916, to 8:00 am, Lark Hill, 20 November 1916: awarded 21 days' Field Punishment No 2; forfeited a total of 42 days' pay.

Proceeded overseas to France, 25 November 1916; admitted to 10th Australian Field Ambulance, 11 January 1917 (sceptic foot); discharged to unit, 16 January 1917.

Admitted to 9th Australian Field Ambulance, 23 February 1917 (acute tonsilitis); to 11th Australian Field Ambulance, 24 February 1917; transferred to 3rd Australian Divisional Rest Station, 26 February 1917; discharged to unit, 3 March 1917.

Promoted Temporary Corporal, 17 July 1917; promoted Corporal, 6 August 1917. Promoted Lance Sergeant, 11 September 1917; promoted Temporary Sergeant, 7 October 1918.

Killed in action, 13 October 1917; awarded Military Medal (posthumously), 28 January 1918.

Medals: Military Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, BARR Hugh

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