| Regimental number | 2104 |
| Place of birth | Parkes, New South Wales |
| School | Catholic School, Parkes, New South Wales |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | Farm hand |
| Address | May Street, Parkes, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 24 |
| Height | 5' 6" |
| Weight | 120 lbs |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs T Barnes, May Street, Parkes, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Nil |
| Enlistment date | |
| Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
| Place of enlistment | Liverpool, New South Wales |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 3rd Battalion, 5th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/20/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A55 Kyarra on |
| Regimental number from Nominal Roll | 2104A |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 3rd Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Broodseinde Ridge, Passchendaele, Belgium |
| Date of death | |
| Age at death | 26 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 26 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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 | 35 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Thomas and Grace BARNES, May Street, Parkes, New South Wales |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Note on Red Cross File: 'No trace Germany. Cert. by Capt. Mills. 10.10.19.' Statement, Lt F.G. FITZPATRICK, 3rd Bn, 17 September 1918: 'I had a batman of the name of Barnes, about 25, short, clean shaven, with dark eyes. On the 4th Octr we were on Broodseinde Ridge, near Passchendaele. I left him in a shell hole while I had to go up further. A barrage opened while I was coming back, and in the smoke I was unable to fond the position again, and I never saw anything of Barnes afterwards.' Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, BARNES Leslie James
Red Cross File No 0240702F |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
