Richard Christopher SHUTLER

Regimental number2915
Place of birthBrunswick, Victoria
SchoolAlbert Street State School, Brunswick, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationTile presser
Address160 Edward Street, East Brunswick, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Next of kinMrs E Shutler, 160 Edward Street, East Brunswick, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for five years in the Victoria Rifles.
Enlistment date1 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentLance Corporal
Unit name7th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/24/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A16 Star Of Victoria on 10 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal Roll7th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour Circular"Corporal Shutler was spoked very highly of by his superior officers. He was promoted to Sergeant but was unfortunately killed before he was gazetted. Six cousins served in the Imperial Army and his elder brother, Herbert, had been nine years in the British Navy. [He] served all through the war and was wounded in Heliogoland and Jutland Battles and now doing refugee work in Russia." [Mother: Emma Shutler of Brunswick, Victoria.]
FateKilled in Action 25 July 1916
Place of death or woundingPozieres, Somme Sector, France
Age at death25
Age at death from cemetery records25
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
51
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Richard and Emma SHUTLER, 160 Edward Street, East Brunswick, Victoria
Family/military connectionsBrother: Herbert Shutler, Royal Navy, who survived the war. Cousins: Six unspecified, served in British Expeditionary Force and No.6588 Private Gordon Shutler, 5th Battalion, killed in action.