Arthur Ernest LANE

Regimental number337
Place of birthBrixton, London, England
SchoolEffia Road School, London, England
Age on arrival in Australia29
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMiner
AddressHillgrove PO, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation32
Height5' 6"
Weight144 lbs
Next of kinFather, Robert Lane, 86 Gresham Road, Brixton, England
Previous military serviceServed as a Private in 2nd West Riding (Yorkshire) Regiment, British Army, for 7 years.
Enlistment date19 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentSergeant
Unit name4th Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/21/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board Transport A14 Euripides on 20 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll4th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 10 November 1917
Age at death36
Age at death from cemetery records36
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
41
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Robert and Jane LANE, 86 Gresham Road, Brixton, London, England
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 5 April 1915. Found guilty, 16 June 1915, of neglect of duty in that while Corporal of the Guard he took off his Webb equipment and allowed the Guard to do the same: severely reprimanded. Promoted Sergeant, 30 July 1915. Wounded in action, 6 August 1915 (gun shot wound, shoulder); admitted to HMS 'Ascania', 7 August 1915, and transferred to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 11 August 1915; to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 11 August 1915; to Australian and New Zealand Convalescent Hospital, Helouan, 1 September 1915; discharged to light duties, 10 September 1915.

Embarked for overseas with 6th Training Bn, 30 May 1916; taken on strength, 1st training Bn, Weymouth, England, 6 July 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 31 July 1916; rejoined 4th Bn, 12 August 1916.

Admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance, 17 February 1917 (pleurisy); to 9th General Hospital, Rouen, 18 February 1917; transferred to England, 3 March 1917, and admitted to 3rd London General Hospital, 4 March 1917. Discharged on furlough, 26 March 1917, to report to No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 10 April 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 30 July 1917; rejoined Bn, 19 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 10 November 1917.

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