| Regimental number | 5028 |
| Place of birth | Dimboola, Victoria |
| School | Woorak State School, Victoria |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Occupation | Blacksmith |
| Address | Jung, Victoria |
| Marital status | Married |
| Age at embarkation | 35 |
| Height | 5' 8.875" |
| Weight | 193 lbs |
| Next of kin | Wife, Mrs E M Ackland, Jung, Victoria |
| Previous military service | Nil |
| Enlistment date | |
| Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
| Place of enlistment | Mildura, Victoria |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 6th Battalion, 16th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/23/4 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A23 Suffolk on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 6th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Passchendaele, Ypres, Belgium |
| Age at death | 36 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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 | 45 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Hugh and Margaret ACKLAND; husband of Ethel M. ACKLAND, Beulah, Victoria. Native of Dimboola, Victoria |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Melbourne, 1 April 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 12 June 1916. Embarked Perham Downs to join the British Expeditionary Force in the field, 21 August 1916. Taken on strength, 6th Bn, 10 September 1916. Admitted to No. 2 Australian Field Ambulance (otitis media, left ear), 12 October 1916; admitted to No. 14 General Hospital, Wimereux, 16 October 1916; transferred to No. 1 Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 17 October 1916; discharged to 1st Australian Division Base Details, Etaples, 21 October 1916. Admitted to No. 26 General Hospital (pyrexia), Etaples, 23 November 1916; transferred to No. 6 Convalescent Depot (bronchitis), Etaples, 29 November 1916; transferred to No. 5 Convalescent Depot, Cayeux, 8 December 1916; discharged to 1st Australian Division Base Details, 19 December 1916. Proceeded on leave to Britain, 26 September 1917; rejoined unit in the field, 8 October 1917. Killed in action, Belgium, 30 October 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, ACKLAND Harold |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
