The AIF Project

Robert Albert FOGGO

Regimental number2643
Place of birthHope Valley, South Australia
SchoolHope Valley Public School, South Australia
ReligionMethodist
OccupationGardener
AddressHope Valley, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation20
Next of kinMother, Mrs Mary Foggo, Hope Valley, South Australia
Previous military serviceServed in the Junior Cadets and in the 79th Infantry Bn, Citizen Military Forces (still serving at time of AIF enlistment).
Enlistment date24 August 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll17 August 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name27th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/44/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 27 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll10th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 1 October 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death21.6
Age at death from cemetery records21
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
59
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Robert and Mary FOGGO, Highbury East, South Australia. Native of Hope Valley, South Australia
Family/military connectionsBrothers: 2286 Pte Edward FOGGO, 48th Bn, returned to Australia, 1 July 1919; 4774 Pte James FOGGO, 50th Bn, returned to Australia, 13 April 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Proceeded to join 10th Bn, Zeitoun, 27 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 27 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 3 April 1916.

Admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance, 8 October 1916 (scabies); rejoined unit, 17 October 1916.

Admitted to 2nd Australian Field Ambulance, 3 November 1916 (influenza); transferred to England, 14 November 1916, and admitted to Beaufort War Hospital, 15 November 1916; transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 20 November 1916; discharged to furlough, 27 November 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 2 July 1917; rejoined unit, 21 July 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 1 October 1917. Buried; grave lost in subsequent fighting.

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

Print format    


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