The AIF Project

James RICE

Regimental number3145
Place of birthGlasgow, Scotland
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationLabourer
AddressKalgoorlie Hotel, Hindley Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Height5' 7.5"
Weight159 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs M Rice, Tiveot Street, Glasgow, Scotland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date16 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name10th Battalion, 10th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/27/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A70 Ballarat on 14 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll50th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 17 October 1917
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
151
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Taken on strength, 10th Bn, Gallipoli, 25 November 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 29 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Transferred to 50th Bn, Serapeum, 26 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916.

Wounded in action, 16 August 1916 (gun shot wound, arm); admitted to 9th General Hospital, Rouen, 16 August 1916; transferred to England, 17 August 1916, and admitted to 3rd London General Hospital. Marched out to 2nd Auxiliary Hospital, Southall, 15 September 1916; marched in to No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 18 September 1916; to No. 1 Command Depot, Wareham, 27 October 1916. Found guilty of being absent without leave, midnight, 26 December, to 2 pm, 30 December 1916: admonished and forfeited 4 days' pay.

Proceeded overseas to France, 12 September 1917; rejoined unit, Belgium, 1 October 1917.

Killed in action, 17 October 1917. Killed by shell fire; buried NW of Broodseinde.

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

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