Frank PIERCE

Regimental number24
Place of birthFitzroy, Victoria
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationDriver
Address88 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinKatherine Pierce, Cheltenham House, Cheltenham, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 2 years in the Senior Cadets.
Enlistment date17 August 1914
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll19 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentDriver
Unit name6th Battalion, Headquarters
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/23/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A20 Hororata on 19 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll6th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 20 September 1917
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
48
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Gallipoli), 5 April 1915. Evacuated from Gallipoli, 3 September 1915; admitted to 15th General Hospital, Alexandria, 4 September 1915 (operation, foot). Discharged to duty, 17 September 1915. Admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Ghezireh, 6 October 1915; transferred to Mena House Hospital, 30 October 1915; transferred to Heloun Convalescent Hospital, 9 November 1915; discharged, 13 November 1915. Taken on strength, Overseas Base, Cairo, 6 January 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 26 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 2 April 1916.

Found guilty of being absent without leave, 2-6 April 1916: awarded 21 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 5 days' pay.

Under arrest, 14-21 April 1916. Found guilty of drunkenness by Field General Court Martial: awarded 60 days' Field Punishment No. 2.

Found guilty by Field General Court Martial, 21 June 1916, of offering violence to his superior officer 'in that he at Sailly France on 9th June 1916 at about 5.30 pm attempted to strike Sgt F.R. Mayo, 2nd Bn A.I.F., who was at the time carrying out his duties as Commander of the Guard on the Detention Camp 1st Australian Division'. Awarded 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour and total forfeiture of pay of 396 days. Admitted to Military Prison, Havre, 18 August 1916; sentence completed and proceeded to Australian General Base Depot, 4 July 1917; rejoined 6th Bn, 15 July 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917.

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