The AIF Project

Charles Augustus LITTLER

Place of birthLaunceston, Tasmania
SchoolEdinburgh College, Tasmania
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationGovernment agent
AddressDevonport, Tasmania
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation46
Next of kinMrs H Littler, Devonport, Tasmania
Enlistment date25 November 1914
Rank on enlistmentLieutenant
Unit name12th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/29/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A46 Clan Macgillivray on 2 February 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll52nd Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Unspecified


Mention in Despatches awarded, and promulgated, 'London Gazette', fourth Supplement, No. 29664, 11 July 1916; 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 176, 30 November 1916.
Recommendation date: Refers December 1915.

Other details from Roll of Honour Circular

Several years Commercial Agent for Tasmania in the Far East; travelled largely in Java, Malay States, Philippines, China, Borneo, Manchuria and Siberia. Explored the interior of Southern Philipines.

FateKilled in Action 3 September 1916
Place of death or woundingMouquet Farm, Pozieres, France
Age at death48
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
155
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Augustus LITTLER and his wife Hannah MURRAY; husband of Helen LITTLER, "Silwood", Devonport, Tasmania
Medals

Distinguished Service Order


Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 129
Date: 21 September 1916

Family/military connectionsSons: [2869] Lt Burnett Guy LITTLER MC, 1st Bn, returned to Australia, 16 October 1916; 64 Geoffrey Ashburner LITTLER, 8th Machine Gun Company, returned to Australia, 12 November 1916; Cousin: Lt Col H MURRAY VC DSO DCM.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Medals: Distinguished Service Order, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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