The AIF Project

Louis Henry EITELBERG

Regimental number1711
Place of birthNorthampton England
SchoolNorthampton, England
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationHotel porter
Address67 Cobden Street, Kew, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Next of kinFather, Lewis H Eitelberg, 67 Cobden Street, Kew, Victoria
Enlistment date19 May 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name23rd Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/40/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A64 Demosthenes on 16 July 1915
Rank from Nominal Roll2nd Lieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll23rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 6 November 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death26
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
99
Family/military connectionsBrother: 5667 Pte William Thomas Albert EITELBERG, 14th Bn, returned to Australia, 20 October 1918.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli, 30 August 1915. Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 7 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 26 March 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal, 19 May 1916; Temporary Corporal, 30 July 1916; Temporary Sergeant, then Sergeant, 2 October 1916.

Appointed to No. 2 Officer Cadet Bn, Pembroke College, Cambridge, 5 November 1916; appointed 2nd Lt, 31 March 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 27 April 1917; taken on strength, 23rd Bn, 20 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 6 November 1917.

Buried near Helles Track close to Garter Point, approximately 500 yards SW of Pilckem, Ypres sector; grave subsequently lost.

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

Print format    


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