The AIF Project

Albert Leslie MILLER

Regimental number695
Place of birthVictoria
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationMiner
Addressc/o A M A Hall, Hainault Road, Boulder, Western Australia
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation31
Next of kinWife, Nora Miller, c/o A M A Hall, Fimiston, Western Australia
Previous military serviceServed 1 year 6 months in the South African War.
Enlistment date4 September 1914
Rank on enlistmentCorporal
Unit name11th Battalion, F Company
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on 2 November 1914
Rank from Nominal RollCaptain
Unit from Nominal Roll51st Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularHe enlisted as a private and left Western Australia with the original 11th Bn as a corporal. He served through the Gallipoli campaign, won his commissions on the battlefield, and was killed in France. (details from wife)
FateKilled in Action 14 August 1916
Age at death33
Age at death from cemetery records32
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
153
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Eliza MILLER; husband of Norah MILLER, 15 Bellevue Terrace, Fremantle, Western Australia
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

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

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