Regimental number | 3824 |
Place of birth | Sheffield, England |
School | Public School, Sheffield, England |
Age on arrival in Australia | 27 |
Religion | Church of England |
Occupation | Accountant |
Address | 56 Smith Street, Summer Hill, New South Wales |
Marital status | Married |
Age at embarkation | 31 |
Next of kin | Wife, Mrs E Kirman, 56 Smith Street, Summer Hill, New South Wales |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 13th Battalion, 12th Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/30/3 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A29 Suevic on |
Regimental number from Nominal Roll | Commissioned |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Lieutenant |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 45th Battalion |
Recommendations (Medals and Awards) |
Military Medal Recommendation date: Military Cross 'For his gallantry and devotion to duty at ZONNEBEKE on the night of 12th/13th October 1917 during strong enemy counter attacks. When the Unit of the left of the Brigade retired he placed huis Lewis guns in position to cover the subsequent retirement of the 48th and 47th A.I.F. Battalions, He then reorganised the Battalion front line under a very severe enemy barrage, regardless of his own personal safety. During the whole period in the line from 9/10/17 to 13/10/17, though his Company lost all Officers except himself and the climatic conditions were most strenuous, his cheeriness and example at all times inspired all.' Recommendation date: |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Zonnebeke, France |
Age at death from cemetery records | 33 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), 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 | 140 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Joseph and Betsy Ann KIRMAN; Wife: Ellen KIRMAN, Cecil Street, Abbotsford Point, New South Wales |
Medals |
Military Medal 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during strong enemy counter attacks. When the unit on the left of the brigade retired he placed his Lewis guns in position to cover the retirement. He then reorganized the battalion front under very severe enemy barrage. During the four days' operations all the other officers of the company became casualties.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 62 Date: Military Cross Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 150 Date: |
Family/military connections | Brother: 3818 Lance Corporal Thomas William KIRWIN, 3rd Bn, returned to Australia, 4 July 1919. |
Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Medals: Military Cross, Military Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal |