The AIF Project

Francis Henry Burdett SALMON

Regimental number2220
Place of birthSmithtown, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationElectrician
Address191 Livingstone Road, Marrickville, New South Wales
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation25
Height5' 6.25"
Weight154 lbs
Next of kinWife, Mrs C W Salmon, 191 Livingstone Road, Marrickville, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date27 June 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name20th Battalion, 4th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/37/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on 30 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll20th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 10 October 1917
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
92
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Taken on strength, 20th Bn, Tel el Kebir,19 January 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles,25 March 1916.

Wounded in action, France, 25 March 1916 (shell wound, neck); admitted to 26th General Hospital, Etaples, 28 July 1916; to Convalescent Camp, 31 July 1916; to 2nd Australian Division Base Depot, 18 August 1916; rejoined Bn, 24 August 1916.

Appointed Lance Corporal, Belgium, 1 September 1916.

Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 5 November 1916 (boils); transferred to 6th General Hospital, Rouen, 6 November 1916 (impetigo); discharged to 2nd Convalescent Depot, 21 November 1916; rejoined Bn, 9 January 1917.

Promoted Temporary Corporal, 5 February 1917; Corporal, 14 February 1917.

Admitted to 6th Australian Field Ambulance, 16 March 1917 (impetigo); to 6th General Hospital, Rouen, 23 March 1917; to 2nd Convalescent Depot, 23 March 1917; to 2nd ADBD, 5 April 1917; rejoined unit, 9 April 1917. Promoted Sergeant, 17 May 1917.

Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 5 July 1917 (scabies); to 9th Casualty Clearing Station, 23 July 1917; rejoined Bn, 11 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 10 October 1917.

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

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