The AIF Project

George Edward EVANS

Regimental number5020
Place of birthNarrandera, New South Wales
SchoolMatong State School, Matong, New South Wales
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationLabourer
AddressMatong, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 5.75"
Weight132 lbs
Next of kinFather, W Evans, Matong PO, Matong, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil (previously rejected for enlistment on account of chest measurement)
Enlistment date4 January 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll5 January 1916
Place of enlistmentCootamundra, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name18th Battalion, 13th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/35/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A55 Kyarra on 5 June 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll33rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 10 June 1917
Place of death or woundingMessines, Belgium
Age at death22
Age at death from cemetery records22
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
122
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Listed on Matong Roll of Honour. Photo: Peter Dennis. Son of William Samuel EVANS and Elizabeth Jean McBEAN, Matong, New South Wales. Native of Narrandera, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsCousin: 7103 Pte David EVANS, 2nd Bn, killed in action, 17 September 1917.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 3 June 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 3 August 1916.

Found guilty, Rollestone, 12 September 1916, of being absent without leave from 2400, 11 September, till 1400, 12 September 1916: awarded forfeiture of 7 days' pay; total forfeiture: 8 days' pay.

Taken on strength, 33rd Bn, 30 September 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 21 November 1916.

Killed in action, 10 June 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, EVANS George Edward

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