The AIF Project

Philip Edward UTTING

Regimental number36
Place of birthDulwich, London, England
SchoolMaynard Road School, Walthamstowe, England
Age on arrival in Australia24
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationClerk
AddressWalthamstowe, London, England
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation25
Height5' 5"
Weight126 lbs
Next of kinFather, J H Utting, Walthamstowe, London, England
Enlistment date12 February 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name20th Battalion, A Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/37/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A35 Berrima on 25 June 1915
Rank from Nominal RollStaff Sergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll20th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 9 October 1917
Place of death or woundingZonnebeke, Belgium
Age at death28
Age at death from cemetery records28
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
92
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: James Horatio and Therese Allison UTTING. Native of Walthamstowe, London, England
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 16 August 1915. Disembarked Alexandria ex Mudros, 9 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 25 March 1916.

Wounded in action, 26 July 1916 (contused right shoulder); transferred to England, 31 July 1916, and admitted to 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, 1 August 1916. Marched in to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 29 August 1916. Granted furlough, 30 August 1916; reported from furlough, 14 September 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 19 November 1916; rejoined Bn, 11 December 1916.

Appointed Lance Corporal, 1 March 1917; promoted Signaller Sergeant, 1 July 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 9 October 1917.

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

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