The AIF Project

Wilfred John Mann HUGHES

Regimental number326
Date of birth29 April 1895
Place of birthGlenelg, South Australia
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
Address11 Fourth Avenue, St Peters, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Height5' 10.75"
Weight134 lbs
Next of kinJohn B Hughes, 11 Fourth Avenue, St Peters, South Australia
Previous military serviceServed for 6months in the 78th Infantry, Citizen Military Forces; previously resided in Exempt Area under the Compulsory Military Training Scheme.
Enlistment date5 February 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll8 February 1915
Place of enlistmentKeswick, South Australia
Rank on enlistmentCorporal
Unit name27th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/44/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A2 Geelong on 31 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal RollTMB
FateKilled in Action 10 April 1918
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
20
Family/military connectionsBrothers: 3403 Pte Leonard Mann HUGHES, 48th Bn, returned to Australia, 3 May 1919; Percival Mann HUGHES, discharged, 24 December 1918, prior to embarkation on cessation of hostilities.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, HUGHES Wilfred John Mann

Print format    


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