Regimental number | 1981 |
Place of birth | Trunkey Creek, New South Wales |
School | Bethanga State School, Victoria |
Religion | Church of England |
Occupation | Labourer |
Address | Portland, New South Wales |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 20 |
Height | 5' 10" |
Weight | 143 lbs |
Next of kin | Father, William Polmear, Portland, New South Wales |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
Place of enlistment | Bathurst, New South Wales |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 45th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/62/3 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A69 Warilda on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 45th Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Messines Ridge, Belgium |
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: William and Eva POLMEAR, Church Street, Portland, New South Wales. Native of Trunkey, New South Wales |
Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Sydney, 22 February 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 18 July 1916; marched into 12th Training Bn, Rollestone, 19 July 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 16 September 1916; taken on strength, 45th Bn, in the field, 22 September 1916. Admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 15 December 1916 (scabies); transferred to No 2 Convalescent Depot, Rouen, 16 December 1916; rejoined Bn, in the field, 19 January 1917. Admitted to 4th Australian Field Ambulance, 2 February 1917 (lacerated eye); transferred same day to 38th Casualty Clearing Station (mumps); discharged to duty, 23 February 1917; rejoined Bn, 24 February 1917. Found guilty, 22 April 1917, of being absent without leave from 9.30 am till apprehended by Military Police, 12.25 pm, 22 April 1917: awarded 168 hours' Field Punishment No 2, and forfeited 7 days' pay. Reported missing in action, 7 June 1917. Court of Enquiry, 21 March 1918, ruled fate as killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Miscellaneous details | Name entered on Attestation Form as Roy POLMEAR (William crossed out); insurance policy with MLC held in the name of: Roland Garfield POLMEAR |