The AIF Project

Robert GROVES

Regimental number1738
Place of birthSydney New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationHairdresser
Address30 Young Street, Annandale, Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinMother, Mrs Louisa Groves, 30 Young Street, Annandale, Sydney, New South Wales
Enlistment date18 August 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name30th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/47/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A35 Berrima on 17 December 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll13th Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Military Medal (Crossed through)


Recommendation date: 3 September 1916

FateKilled in Action 25 September 1917
Age at death from cemetery records22
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
69
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Son of Louisa GROVES, 30 Young Street, Annandale, New South Wales. Native of Sydney
Medals

Military Medal

'After the attack north west of POZIERES on the night 29th/30th August, 1916, Lance Corporal GROVES found himself the only remaining N.C.O. of his Platoon. He at once took charge, and reorganised his Platoon. By his prompt action he was able to maintain the defence of his line with a well controlled party of men. His action showed a cool judgement at a critical time.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 62
Date: 19 April 1917

Other details

War service: Western Front

Medals: Military Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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