The AIF Project

John McDOWELL

Regimental number2395
Place of birthAllora, Queensland
SchoolAllora State School, Queensland
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationFarmer
AddressGoomburra, Allora, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinMother, Mrs John McDowell, Goomburra, Allora, Queensland
Previous military serviceServed for 3 years in in the 14th Australian Light Horse Regiment, 3rd Brigade, Citizen Military Forces.
Enlistment date4 May 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name15th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/32/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A9 Shropshire on 20 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll15th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularAccording to information received from the Red Cross Bureau, he was killed instantaneously while asleep in a trench, 10 August 1916. However, two mates (Ptes D. Oswald and F. Staples) claimed that the shell struck while all three were talking in the trench, 12 August 1916.
FateKilled in Action 10 August 1916
Place of death or woundingTramway Trench, Pozieres, France
Age at death23
Age at death from cemetery records23
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
144
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Commemorated in Allora General Cemetery, Queensland. Parents: John and Jane McDOWELL, Goomburra, Queensland
Family/military connectionsCousin: (from Millmerran, Queensland) killed in action.

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