| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
| Address | North Perth, Western Australia |
| Marital status | Married |
| Age at embarkation | 28 |
| Next of kin | Wife, Mrs L Fordham, 149 Vincent Street, North Perth, Western Australia |
| Previous military service | Served as Lt and Signal Officer for 6 years in thr 86th Infantry Regiment, Citizen Military Forces. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | 2nd Lieutenant |
| Unit name | 11th Battalion, 24th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/28/5 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT Miltiades on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | 2nd Lieutenant |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 11th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 28 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The 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 | 62 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Wynter George and Jessie Laughton FORDHAM; husband of Louie FORDHAM, 'Wyke Regis', Knutsford Street, North Perth, Western Australia. Native of Melbourne~ |
| Family/military connections | Brothers: 1352 Staff Sergeant Darrell Keith FORDHAM MM, 12th Field Ambulance, returned to Australia, 24 September 1918; 1240 Driver Noel Archibald FORDHAM MM, 4th Divisional Motor Transport Company, returned to Australia, 5 September 1919. |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked from Fremantle, 29 January 1917; disembarked Devonport, England, 27 March 1917. Attended a course at the Southern Command Signal School, Weymouth, 14 June-28 July 1917; qualified as 2nd Class Instructor (passed with credit). Proceeded overseas to France, 27 August 1917; taken on strength, 11th Bn, 11 September 1917. Missing in action, believed wounded, 20 September 1917; subsequently confirmed as killed in action. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
