The AIF Project

Edward TURNER

Regimental number700
Place of birthGlasgow, Scotland
Age on arrival in Australia20
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarmer
Address16 Regent Park Terrace, Strathburg, Glasgow, Scotland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation26
Next of kinMother, Mrs Mary Turner, 16 Regent Park Terrace, Strathburg, Glasgow, Scotland
Previous military serviceServed for 2 years with the Volunteer Bn, Highland Light Infantry, Glasgow.
Enlistment date24 February 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name17th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/34/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 12 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll17th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 9 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death28
Age at death from cemetery records28
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), 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
84
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 16 August 1915. Admitted to hospital, 7 October 1915 (influenza), and transferred to hospital ship. Admitted to General Hospital, Gibraltar, 15 October 1915; transferred to England, 8 November 1915, and admitted to 4th Southern General Hospital, Plymouth, 12 November 1915; discharged to Command Depot, Weymouth, 24 March 1916; rejoined Bn in France, 22 June 1916.

Appointed Temporary Corporal, 10 August 1916. To hospital (reverted to Private), 17 August 1916 (scabies); returned to duty, 30 August 1916, and appointed Temporary Corporal.

Wounded in action, 12 November 1916 (gun shot wound, left arm); admitted to 3rd General Hospital, Rouen, 12 November 1916. transferred to England, 14 November 1916, and admitted to Beaufort Military Hospital. 2 December 1916. Marched into No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 6 December 1916. Admitted to 3rd Scottish General Hospital, Glasgow, 17 January 1917 (chicken pox); marched into No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 18 February 1917. Transferred to 61st Bn, 10 May 1917; marched into Training Bn, Perham Downs, 11 August 1917. Found guilty, 27 August 1917, of being absent without leave from noon, 23 August, to 11 am, 25 August 1917: awarded forfeiture of 7 days' pay (total forfeiture: 10 days' pay). Proceeded overseas to France, 10 September 1917; rejoined Bn, 29 September 1917.

Wounded in action, missing, Belgium, 9 October; subsequently confirmed as 'killed in action'.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, Britsh War Medal, Victory Medal.

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