William Harry JACKSON

Regimental number633
Place of birthNewtown, Sydney, New South Wales
True NameCONE, Harry Hurwood
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
AddressThe Rock, Cooma, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation31
Height5' 6"
Weight119 lbs
Next of kinW H Jackson, Nil Desperandum, Elizabeth Street, Ashfield, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed for 6 months in St George's Rifles, Citizen Military Forces.
Enlistment date26 August 1914
Place of enlistmentSydney, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentDriver
Unit nameField Artillery Brigade 1, Brigade Ammunition Column
AWM Embarkation Roll number13/29/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board Transport A8 Argyllshire on 18 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollGunner
Unit from Nominal Roll7th Field Artillery Brigade
FateKilled in Action 10 August 1917
Miscellaneous details (Nominal Roll)Listed on Nominal Roll under CONE.
Age at death from cemetery records33
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
15
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Served as CONE, Harry Harwood. Parents: William and Eliza CONE. Native of Newtown, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrother: 12/1178 Pte William Charles CONE, 1st Bn, Auckland Infantry Regiment, NZEF, died of wounds, 28 March 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 4 April 1915.

Wounded in action, 5 June 1915 (gun shot wound, thigh and shoulder), and admitted to 3rd East Lancashire Field Ambulance; transferred to Military Hospital, Malta, 12 July 1915; to Convalescent Camp, Mustapha, Egypt; embarked for Gallipoli, 2 August 1915; rejoined unit, 8 August 1915.

Disembarked Alexandria, 4 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 21 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 27 March 1916.

Admitted to 3rd Field Ambulance, 11 June 1916 (boils); transferred to Divisional Rest Station, 18 June 1916; discharged to duty, 18 June 1916.

Transferred to 3rd Australian Division Artillery, 25 February 1917; taken on strength, 107th Battery, 27 February 1917.

Transferred to 27th Battery, 18 March 1917.

Killed in action, 10 August 1917.

Statement, Red Cross File No 14203081, 29515 Gunner T. ELDER, 27th Battery, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade (patient, No 2 General Hospital [Casino], Havre), 14 November 1917: 'I knew him, He was medium height, lean, rather dark, had artificial teeth, round-shouldered. He was fond of gambling. He was Major Taylor's batman. He was in the 15th Battery, and was later transferred to the 27th Battery. In the afternoon of the 10th Aug. Jackson and 3 others were in a dugout when a shell hit it. Jackson and other man, Tom Roff, were killed.'

Second statement, 22494 Gunner W.D. SMITH, 27th Battery, 3rd Field Artillery Brigade (patient, No 2 Stationary Hospital, Boulogne), 4 December 1917: 'We were on Messines ridge on August 10th. Bmmbdr E. Wheeler of No. 27 Bty was in a dugout on which a shell fell, and killed Jackson and my pal Roff outright. Gunner robinson of 27th Bty had shell shock and Wheeler, my informant, escaped unhurt and told me the facts. The two killed were buried by the shell and dug up and ten taken to a little farm for burial and left with the 3rd Division Pioneers. I saw the graves later myself. Jackson was about 5ft 8, was a batman at the time to Major Taylor.'

Third statement, 22283 Battery Sergeant
SourcesNAA: B2455, JACKSON William Harry
Red Cross File No 14203081