The AIF Project

Ernest SCRIVENER

Regimental number279
Place of birthBridlington, Yorkshire, England
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationPainter
Address56 Douglas Parade, Williamstown, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Height5' 7.5"
Weight140 lbs
Next of kinSister, Nowra Scrivener, 56 Douglas Parade, Williamstown, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 1 year in the Senior Cadets (left district); for 1 year in the 70th Infantry (Williamstown).
Enlistment date15 March 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name24th Battalion, A Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/41/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 10 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll24th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 5 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
103
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 30 August 1915. Appointed Temporary Corporal, 30 December 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 10 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

20 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 27 March 1916. Promoted Corporal, 15 May 1916; Temporary Sergeant, 12 August 1916; Sergeant, 2 September 1916.

Admitted to 2nd Australian Field Ambulance, 9 November 1916 (scabies), and transferred to 36th Casualty Clearing Station; rejoined Bn, 10 December 1916.

Detached for duty at 6th Training Bn,1 May 1917; marched in to 6th Training Bn, Larkhill, England, 5 May 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 18 September 1917; rejoined 24th Bn, 25 September 1917.

Killed in action, 5 October 1917.

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

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