Leslie WALLIS

Regimental number417
Place of birthFremantle, Western Australia
ReligionMethodist
OccupationLabourer
AddressDale, Wongan Hills, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 6"
Weight150 lbs
Next of kinFather, W Wallis, Dale, Wongan Hills, Western Australia
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date22 September 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name16th Battalion, C Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/33/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on 22 December 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll16th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 June 1917
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
81
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Alice C WALLIS.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 12 April 1915. Wounded in action, 2 May 1915 (gun shot wound, chest); admitted to 15th General Hospital, Alexandria, 6 May 1915. Transferred by HS 'Nevasa', 16 May 1915; admitted to 3rd Western General Hospital, Manchester, 29 May 1915. Admitted to 26th Draft to rejoin unit, 25 March 1916. Taken on strength, 48th Bn, Serapeum, Egypt, 26 April 1916. Transferred to 16th Bn, 6 May 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 1 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 9 June 1916.

Wounded in action, 11 August 1916 (shell shock: remained at duty). Admitted to 7th Field Ambulance, 15 August 1916; rejoined unit, 15 August 1917.

Killed in action, 12 June 1917.

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