The AIF Project

Henry Reginald MORAS

Regimental number1641
Place of birthSydney, New South Wales
True NamePEEL, Henry Reginald
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationDrapery salesman
AddressCorowa, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Height5' 8"
Weight138 lbs
Next of kinSister, Miss Josephine Moras, 824 Brunswick Street, North Fitzroy, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 3 years in the Senior Cadets; 1 year in the Citizen Military Forces (1897 Quota).
Enlistment date4 April 1916
Place of enlistmentWangaratta, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name37th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/54/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A11 Ascanius on 27 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll5th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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
44
Other details

War service: Western Front

Transferred to 5th Bn, England, 9 September 1916, and proceeded overseas to France.

Taken on strength, 5th Bn, in the field, 29 September 1916.

Admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance, 8 November 1916 (colitis); discharged to duty, 13 November 1917; rejoined Bn, 15 November 1916.

Admitted to 1st Australian Field Ambulance, 11 January 1917 (pyrexia, unknown origin), and transferred to 36th Casualty Clearing Station; to 6th General Hospital, Rouen, 12 January 1917 (retention of urine); to 2nd Convalescent Depot, 4 February 1917; to Base Depot, Etaples, 18 February 1917; rejoined Bn, in the field, 4 March 1917.

Admitted to 3rd Field Ambulance, 9 April 1917 (tonsilitis); transferred to 2nd Divisional Rest Station, 9 April 1917; to 4th Field Ambulance, 10 April 1916; discharged to duty, 20 April 1917; rejoined Bn, in the field, 22 April 1917.

Reported missing in action, 4 October 1917.

Court of Enquiry concluded: 'Killed in action, 4 October 1917.'

Note on Red Cross File: 'No trace Germany. Cert. by Capt. Mills 10.10.19.'

Statement, 4150 Lance Corporal H. BISSETT, 5th Bn, 6 June 1918: 'On the 4th Octr we were holding the line at Passchendale, while the other Battns were attacking at about 10.30 a.m. Moras and three others were sent away to get stretchers. They had got the stretchers and had left the D/Station and were seen about 100 yards away. After that we got no more news of them and we reckon that they were blown to pieces. The shell barrage was so intense and continuous. I knew him well, he was shortish and strong built, but I didn't know where he came from.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, MORAS Henry Reginald
Red Cross File 1820112F

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