The AIF Project

Frederick John MacDOUALL

Regimental number2869
Place of birthRichmond, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationClerk
Address136 Victoria Street, Lewisham, Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation20
Next of kinFather, R F MacDouall, 136 Victoria Street, Lewisham, Sydney, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date22 June 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/21/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on 30 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll56th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 26 September 1917
Age at death from cemetery records22
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: Reginald and Sarah MacDOUALL, 157 Denison Road, Petersham, New South Wales; husband of Mrs G. MacDOUALL. Native of Victoria
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Joined 4th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 6 January 1916. Transferred to 56th Bn, 13 February 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal, 14 February 1916; Temporary Corporal, 24 February 1916. Admitted to 14th Field Ambulance, Ferry Post, 19 May 1916 (colitis); transferred to No. 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, 28 May 1916. Promoted Corporal, 26 May 1916. Discharged to duty, 6 June 1916. Promoted Sergeant, 8 June 1916.

Embarked from Alexandria, 29 July 1916; disembarked Southampton, England, via Marseilles, 9 August 1916. Appointed Temporary Company Sergeant Major, 1 January 1917. Found guilty, 30 March 1917, of neglect of duty: reverted to rank of Sergeant.

Proceeded overseas to France, 5 September 1917; rejoined 56th Bn, 20 September 1917.

Killed in action, 26 September 1917. W. SHORT, OC, 'C' Company, 56th Bn, stated: 'I have made enquiries regarding death of 2869 Sgt MacDouall. Killed 26 September 1917 but cannot find anyone who saw him. It is known he had his arm blown off and died of wounds shortly afterwards (but no further information can be obtained at present).'

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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