Herbert George GARDINER

Regimental number1007
Place of birthWelborough, Tasmania
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
AddressWelborough, Tasmania
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Height5' 5"
Weight134 lbs
Next of kinFather, William Gardiner, Welborough, Tasmania
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date5 May 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll5 January 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name26th Battalion, C Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/43/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on 29 June 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll26th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 5 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records23
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
107
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Edith GARDINER, Welborough, Tasmania
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 4 September 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 9 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 15 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 21 March 1916.

Wounded in action, 5 November 1916 (gun shot wound, left hand); admitted to 3rd Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 6 November 1916; transferred to England, 9 November 1916, and admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital; transferred to 2nd Auxiliary Hospital, 24 November 1916; discharged to No. 2 Command Depot, 28 November 1916. Found guilty of breaking away from fatigue party without permission from 11 a.m. and remaining absent till 4 p.m., 11 January 1917: awarded 3 days' confined to barracks and forfeiture of 1 day's pay. Admitted to 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 24 February 1917; discharged, 7 April 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 43 days. Proceeded overseas to France, 22 May 1917; rejoined Bn, 12 June 1917.

Admitted to 7th Australian Field Ambulance, 9 July 1917 (tonsillitis); rejoined unit, 15 July 1917. Proceeded to Summer Rest Camp, 13 August 1917; rejoined unit, 27 August 1917.

Reported missing in action, 5 October 1917; Court of Enquiry (date not recorded on file) confirmed fate as 'killed in action', Belgium, 5 October 1917.

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