John JELL

Regimental number1231
Place of birthYarra Glen, Victoria
SchoolYarra Glen State School and Streets Cnr State School
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarm labourer
AddressSteel's Creek, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinSister, Francis Steele, Steele's Creek via Yarra Glen, Victoria
Enlistment date12 March 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name23rd Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/40/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 10 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll23rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 3 October 1917
Place of death or woundingBelgium
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
99
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: George and Mary JELL. Native of Yarra Glen, Victoria
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1486 Pte Charles JELL MM, 48th Bn, returned to Australia, 14 December 1918.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 30 August 1915. Admitted to 6th Field Ambulance, 15 December 1915; transferred to 15th General Hospital, 23 December 1915; to Convalescent Hospital, 9 January 1916; to Convalescent Depot, Helouan, 14 February 1916; to No. 3 Auxiliary Hospital, 30 March 1916; to Ras El Tin Convalescent Depot, 13 April 1916; discharged to duty, 1 May 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 20 April 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 18 May 1916. Admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Mousset, 23 May 1916; transferred to No. 2 Convalescent Depot, 22 June 1916; rejoined unit, 6 July 1916.

Wounded in action, 31 July 1916 (gun shot wound, back); admitted to 11th General Hospital, Camiers, 5 August 1916; transferred to No. 6 Convalescent Depot, 29 August 1916; discharged to duty, 4 September 1916; rejoined unit, 23 September 1916.

Admitted to 5th Field Ambulance, 9 November 1916 (sore feet); transferred to 10th Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 10 November 1916; transferred to England, 15 November 1916 (trench feet); admitted to 4th Southern General Hospital, 18 November 1916. Granted furlough, 15 January 1917, to report to No. 4 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 3 February 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 25 April 1917; rejoined unit, 2 May 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 3 October 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal