Leander Richard GAY

Regimental number4317
Place of birthBallincollig, Co Cork, Ireland
Other NamesLoander Richard
SchoolLondon County Council School, Lyham Road, Brixton, London, England.
Age on arrival in Australia16
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationButcher
AddressAlfa Road, Prospect, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 9.5"
Weight167 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs F Gay, Grassmere, 58 Rossiter Road, Balham, London, England
Enlistment date29 July 1915
Place of enlistmentExhibition, South Australia
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name10th Battalion, 13th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/27/4
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A30 Borda on 11 January 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll50th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 10 June 1917
Place of death or woundingBullecourt, France
Age at death20
Age at death from cemetery records19
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), 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
150
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Richard and Fanny GAY, 53 Kilshaw Street, West Derby Road, Liverpool, England. Native of Balham, London
Family/military connectionsBrother: 2369 Pte Angelo GAY, 27th Bn, wounded in action, returned to Australia, 13 February 1917.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Taken on strength of 50th Bn, Tel el Kebir, Egypt, 29 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 12 June 1916.

Admitted to 13th Australian Field Ambulance, Sailly, 19 June 1916 (pleurisy); transferred to Ambulance Train and admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Wimereux, 24 June 1916; to England, 30 June 1916; admitted to War Hospital, Northampton, England, 30 June 1916; transferred to Woodcote Park Convalescent Hospital, Epsom, 26 July 1916; discharged from hospital and granted leave, 11 September 1916.

Marched in, from leave, to No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 30 September 1916; marched in to No 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 21 October 1916.

Found guilty, Monte Video, 1 November 1916, of overstaying leave from midnight, 29 October to 10:00 am, 30 October 1916: admonished by Commanding Officer and forfeited 1 day's pay.

Marched in to No 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 3 November 1916; marched in to Folkestone, 6 February 1917; proceeded overseas to France, 18 March 1917; marched in to 4th Australian division Base Depot, Etaples, France, 20 March 1917; rejoined 50th Bn in the field, 30 March 1917.

Killed in action, France, 10 June 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: b2455, GAY Leander Richard