The AIF Project

Michael Francis SHANAHAN

Regimental number4838
Place of birthWooragee, Victoria
Place of birthBeechworth, Victoria
SchoolWooragee State School, Victoria
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationPostal assistant
AddressGlen Innes, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation20
Next of kinFather, P Shanahan, Noorongong via Tallangatta, Victoria
Enlistment date29 September 1915
Place of enlistmentHMAT A40
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name17th Battalion, 12th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/34/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on 13 April 1916
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll53rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 26 September 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Belgium
Age at death22.10
Age at death from cemetery records22
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), 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
158
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Philip and Margaret SHANAHAN, Noorongong, Victoria. Native of Wooragee, Victoria
Family/military connectionsCousins: 2790 Pte Anthony SHANAHAN, 18th Bn, killed in action, 1 July 1916;
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria, 28 May 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 7 June 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 10 September 1916; taken on strength, 53rd Bn, 9 October 1916. Reverted to Private from Acting Corporal (appointed with pay, 27 September 1916) on joining Bn, 9 October 1916. Promoted Corporal, 20 October 1916; appointed Lance Sergeant, 20 October 1916.

Detached to 5th Divisional Infantry School, 26 December 1916. Promoted Sergeant, 23 December 1916. Rejoined Bn from Divisional Infantry School, 18 January 1917.

Detached to Physical Training and Bayonet Fighting School, 15 July 1917.

On leave to England, 28 August 1917; rejoined unit from leave, 11 September 1917.

Killed in action, 26 September 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

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