| Regimental number | 157 |
| Place of birth | Geeveston, Tasmania |
| School | State School, Tasmania |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Labourer |
| Address | Dover, Tasmania |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 21 |
| Height | 5' 8" |
| Weight | 160 lbs |
| Next of kin | Father, Joseph Clayton, Dover, Tasmania |
| Previous military service | Nil ('evaded') |
| Enlistment date | |
| Place of enlistment | Claremont, Tasmania |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 40th Battalion, A Company |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/57/1 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Hobart, Tasmania, on board HMAT A35 Berrima on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 40th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Messines, Belgium |
| Age at death | 23 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 22 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), 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 | 132 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Joseph and Catherine CLAYTON, Port Esperance, Tasmania |
| Family/military connections | Uncle: 619 Pte Frederick George CLAYTON, 40th Bn, returned to Australia, 30 April 1919. |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Hobart, 1 July 1916; disembarked Devonport, England, 22 August 1916. Admitted to Fargo Hospital, 2 September 1916 (ottorrhoea); transferred to 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 25 January 1917; discharged to duty, 13 February 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 87 days. Marched in to 10th Training Bn, 13 February 1917. Admitted to Fargo Military Hospital, 17 February 1917 (pyrexia, unknown origin); discharged to duty, 26 February 1917. Admitted to 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 10 March 1917; discharged to duty, 30 March 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 21 days. Proceeded overseas to France, 3 May 1917; rejoined 40th Bn, 8 May 1917. Killed in action, 7 June 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, CLAYTON Charles |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
