The AIF Project

James MABER

Regimental number913
Place of birthSouthampton, England
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
AddressNelto, Osborne Road, Swanage, Dorset, England
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation28
Next of kinMother, Mrs Maber, Nelto, Osborne Road, Swanage, Dorset, England
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date3 February 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll2 February 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name21st Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/38/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 10 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll21st Battalion
FateKilled in Action 9 October 1917
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
94
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 29 August 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 7 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Found guilty, Canal Zone, of being absent without leave, 13-16 February 1916: awarded 7 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 11 days' pay.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force,19 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 26 March 1916. Found guilty, 7 April 1916, of being absent from morning and afternoon roll calls: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2. Found guilty, 6 May 1916, of absenting himself from his billet, 11 am, 4 May, to 10 am, 5 May 1916: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 16 days' pay. Found guilty, 15 August 1916, of being 30 minutes late for afternoon parade, 15 August 1916: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2.

Admitted to 6th Field Ambulance, 6 January 1917 (laryngitis); discharged to duty, 16 January 1917, and rejoined Bn. To England on furlough, 22 September 1917; returned to unit (Belgium) from furlough, 6 October 1917.

Reported missing in action, 9 October 1917; Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 7 February 1918, confirmed his fate as 'killed in action'.

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

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