The AIF Project

Samuel Taylor ROBERTSON

Regimental number1239
Place of birthTingha, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMiner
AddressStannifer, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation27
Height5' 10.5"
Weight163 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs E Robertson, Stannifer, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date2 February 1916
Place of enlistmentArmidale, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name33rd Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/50/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A74 Marathon on 4 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll33rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Age at death from cemetery records30
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
122
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Elizabeth ROBERTSON, Seymour Street, Auburn, New South Wales. Native of Stannifer, New South Wales
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked sydney, 4 May 1916; disembarked Devonport, England, 9 July 1916.

Prioceeded overseas to France, 21 November 1916.

Admitted to 11th Field Ambulance, 11 March 1917 (polypus cyst), and transferred same day to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station; to Ambulance Train No 26, 14 March 1917, and admitted same day to 8th Stationary Hospital; to 3nd Canadian General Hospital, Wimereux, 15 March 1917; to 7th Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 8 April 1917; to 10th Convalescent Depot, Ecault, 12 April 1917; to 3rd Australian Division Base Depot, Etaples, 12 May 1917; rejoined 33rd Bn, in the field, 14 May 1917.

Killed in action, 7 June 1917.

Note, Red Cross File No 2330103: 'No trace Germany[.] Cert. by Capt. Mills. 10.10.19.'

Statement, 1068 Pte G.R. BARBER, D Company, 33rd Bn (patient, 83rd General Hospital, Boulogne), 8 August 1917: 'I was told by Cpl. See of D. Coy. who knew Robertson, that he had seen him killed by shell fire on the 7th June during the attack on Messines Ridge. Cpl. See said he was close to him when he was killed. I never heard whether his body was recovered and buried.'

Second statement, 1136 Pte W. HALL, D Company, 33rd Bn (patient, No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, England), 16 August 1917: 'I was told he was killed in front of Ypres being shot through the head with a rifle bullet. I did not see head (sic) dead and I did not see his grave but he is sure to have been buried either at Deed (sic) Horse Corner or Regent Street, Plugstreet (sic) Wood.'

Third statement, 1254 Pte G.E. SEE, 33rd Bn, 28 August 1917: 'Sniped through the forehead and died instantly at Messines on June 16th. We carried him back to a forward cemetery and I believe his grave is marked by a small wooden cross. The cemetery is in Ploegsteert Wood and of course is still under constant shell fire. But no doubt shall be organised as the line moves forward.'

Fourth statement, 1265 Pte O. THOROGOOD, D Company, 33rd Bn, 24 December 1917: 'I saw him killed by sniper in a trench to the right of Messines. He died instantly. He was sniping himself at the time. I helped bury him the same night in the open close to where he was killed.'

Fifth statement, [1285] Lt A.F. WHITE, 33rd Bn, 4 December 1917: 'I wish to state that he was killed in action on the 7.6.17. He was shot by a sniper through the head; and was burued in the 9th Brigade A.I.F. Charing Cross Cemetery in Ploeg Street (sic) Wood.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ROBERTSON Samuel Taylor
Red Cross File No 2330103

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