| Regimental number | 1526 |
| Place of birth | Seymour, Victoria |
| School | State School, Seymour, Victoria |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Address | Alberton, Victoria |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 33 |
| Next of kin | Eleanor Ray, Alberton, Victoria |
| Previous military service | Served for 2 years in the Senior Cadets. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 24th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/41/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 24th Battalion |
| Other details from Roll of Honour Circular | Wounded Pozieres, France. |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Ypres, Belgium |
| Age at death | 34 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 34 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The 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 | 102 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: William and Eleanor RAY. Native of Seymour, Victoria |
| Family/military connections | Brother: 3614 Pte Robert Hudson RAY, 24th Bn, returned to Australia, 31 January 1918. |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Proceeded to Gallipoli, 30 August 1915. Admitted to 6th Field Ambulance, 8 November 1915 (eczema);rejoined unit on Mudros, 24 December 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 10 January 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 20 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 26 March 1916. Wounded in action, 5 August 1916 (shell wound, right arm); admitted to 1st Canadian General Hospital, Etaples, 7 August 1916;transferred to 6th Convalescent Depot, 3 September 1916;discharged to duty, 5 September 1916. Admitted to 38th Casualty Clearing Station, 30 November 1916 (scabies); transferred to No. 2 General Hospital, Havre, 9 December 1916; rejoined Bn, 9 January 1917. Admitted to 2nd Australian Field Ambulance, 1 March 1917; transferred to Corps Scabies Station (septic sores), 1 March 1917; rejoined Bn, 9 March 1917. Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 30 April 1917 (scabies); rejoined Bn, 20 May 1917. Killed in action, Belgium, 9 October 1917. Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
