The AIF Project

John Halpin GLYNN

Regimental number3800
Place of birthGoulburn, New South Wales
Other NamesJohn Malpin
SchoolChristian Brothers School, New South Wales
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationRailway cleaner
AddressMulwarrie Street, Goulburn, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Height5' 7"
Weight119 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs M Glynn, Mulwarrie Street, Goulburn, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed 3 years in the Senior Cadets; exempt area.; Nil
Enlistment date16 October 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll13 November 1915
Place of enlistmentCasula, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name20th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/37/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A54 Runic on 20 January 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll56th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 27 September 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Belgium
Age at death19.5
Age at death from cemetery records20
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
162
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Patrick and Mary GLYNN, Mulwarrie Street, Goulburn, New South Wales
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Disembarked Alexandria, 26 February 1916. Transferred to and taken on strength of 56th Bn, Ferry Post, 3 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 june 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 29 June 1916.

Wounded in action, 3 October 1916 (gun shot wound, left buttock); transferred to Hospital Barge, 7 October 1916; to 7th General Hospital, St Omer, 8 October 1916; to England, 14 October 1916, and admitted to hospital (no details recorded on B103); transferred to 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, 20 January 1917; discharged on furlough, 8 February 1917, to report to No 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 14 February 1917.

Transferred to 61st Bn, 23 March 1917. Admitted to Military Hospital, wareham, 25 March 1917 (pneumonia, seriously ill); discharged to Depot, 18 May 1917.

Owing to duplication Regimental No affixed with letter 'A', 25 June 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 30 July 1917; rejoined 56th Bn, 18 August 1917.

Killed in action, 27 September 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

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