The AIF Project

Leslie Thomas George CHAMBERS

Regimental number61
Place of birthRaluana, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago
SchoolElizabeth Street Practising School, Hobart, Tasmania
Other trainingUniversity of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
Age on arrival in Australia3.10
ReligionMethodist
OccupationSchool teacher
AddressEaglehawk, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 10.5"
Weight158 lbs
Next of kinFather, Rev W Chambers, Methodist Parsonage, Eaglehawk, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed in the Military and Naval Cadets (5 years); and in the Citizen Military Forces.
Enlistment date23 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentSergeant
Unit name12th Battalion, A Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/29/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Hobart, Tasmania, on board Transport A2 Geelong on 20 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll12th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 3 November 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death23.10
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
65
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Mr W.J. and Mrs L.E. CHAMBERS, Rabaul, New Guinea. Native of Raluana, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1877 Pte John Arthur CHAMBERS, 12th Bn, returned to Australia, 1 July 1916.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 2 March 1915. Wounded in action, 25-28 April 1915 (bullet wound, arm); admitted to Tigne Hospital, Malta, 4 May 1915; transferred to Egypt, 12 July 1915; disembarked Alexandria, 16 July 1915; embarked to rejoin unit at Gallipoli, 31 August 1915; rejoined unit, 9 September 1915. Admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 25 October 1915 (dysentery), and transferred to hospital ship; disembarked Alexandria, 29 October 1915. Admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Ghezireh, 29 October 1915; transferred to Mena House, 5 December 1915; to Helouan Convalescent Hospital, 8 December 1915; to Overseas Base, Ghiza, 31 December 1915. Attached to 3rd AGH, Abbassia, for guard duty, 5 January 1916; retained by 14th AGH for guard duty, 23 September 1916; detached to Base Details, 2 November 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 8 November 1916; taken on strength, 12th Bn, 5 December 1916.

On command, Divisional School Cadet Course, 1 February 1917. Admitted to 11th Field Ambulance, 23 April 1917; transferred to Tidworth Military Hospital, 23 April 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 9 October 1917; rejoined 12th Bn, Belgium, 15 October 1917.

Killed in action, 3 November 1917.

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

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