The AIF Project

Frederick George APPLEBY

Regimental number14701
Place of birthLondon, England
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationCarpenter
AddressCharles Street, Surrey Hills, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation25
Height5' 5.5"
Weight139 lbs
Next of kinSister, Mrs E E Easthaugh, 'Adaville', Charles Street, Surry Hills, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date10 January 1916
Place of enlistmentMelbourne, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentGunner
Unit nameDivisional Ammunition Column 1, Reinforcement 16
AWM Embarkation Roll number25/89/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on 4 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollGunner
Unit from Nominal Roll10th Light Trench Mortar Battery
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Place of death or woundingBelgium
Age at death26
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 31), 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
19
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria, 1 August 1916, for England.

Proceeded overseas to France, 1 December 1916; taken on strength, 1st Divisional Ammunition Column, in the field, 15 December 1916, and posted to 4th Section.

Detached to Trench Mortar School, 28 December 1916.

Admitted to NZ Stationary Hospital, 9 January 1917 (accidental injury: dislocated elbow: soldier not on military duty at the time); transferred to No 3 Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 13 January 1917; to England, 15 January 1917, and admitted to Beaufort War Hospital, 16 January 1917; transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 6 March 1917; discharged on furlough, 12 March 1917, to report to No 1 command Depot, Perham Downs, 27 March 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 23 July 1917; taken on strength, 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, 29 August 1917.

Wounded in action, 12 October 1917; reported wounded and missing.

Now, 9 July 1918, reported 'Killed in action, 12 October 1917.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, APPLEBY Frederick George

Print format    


© The AIF Project 2024, UNSW Canberra. Not to be reproduced without permission.