The AIF Project

John ROBINSON

Regimental number482
Place of birthMoyhu, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMiner
AddressNorth Lyell PO, North Lyell, Tasmania
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation28
Next of kinFather, William Robinson, Whitfield, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 18 months in the Coburg Cadets.
Enlistment date22 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name12th Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/29/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Hobart, Tasmania, on board Transport A2 Geelong on 20 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll47th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records33
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), 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
144
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Phoebe ROBINSON, Whitfield, Victoria
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 2 March 1915. Admitted to No. 1 Field Ambulance, Mudros, 27 November 1915 (bronchitis); rejoined 12th Bn, 24 December 1915; disembarked Alexandria, 6 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Admitted to No. 1 Stationary Hospital, Serapeum, 3 February 1916 (venereal disease); to 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, 5 February 1916; discharged to Base Details, 21 March 1916. Taken on strength, 47th Bn, 29 April 1916. Admitted to 12th Australian Field Ambulance, 2 May 1916 (venereal disease); transferred to 13th Australian Field Ambulance, 2 May 1916; discharged to unit, 6 May 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 2 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 9 June 1916. Found guilty, 21 July 1916, of using insulting language to an NCO: awarded forfeiture of 10 days' pay. Found guilty of drunkenness while on Active Service, 3 August 1916: awarded 28 days' Field Punishment No. 1. Rejoined unit, 25 August 1916.

Wounded in action, 15 November 1916 (gun shot wound, left hand); transferred to England, 18 November 1916; admitted to 1st London General Hospital, Camberwell, 19 November 1916. Transferred to No. 3 Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, 8 December 1916; discharged to No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 8 December 1916. Found guilty of overstaying leave from 3 pm, 4 January 1917, to 3 pm, 6 January 1917: awarded 14 days' confinement to barracks and forfeiture of 3 days' pay. Proceeded overseas to France, 16 January 1917; rejoined unit, 24 January 1917.

Reported as wounded in action, 12 October 1917; amended to read killed in action, 12 October 1917.

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

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