Regimental number | 2906 |
Place of birth | Jugiong, New South Wales |
School | Public School, New South Wales |
Religion | Church of England |
Occupation | Farmer |
Address | Jugiong, New South Wales |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 27 |
Height | 5' 4.5" |
Weight | 144 lbs |
Next of kin | Mother, Mrs J Sharman, Jugiong Creek, Jugiong, New South Wales |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 4th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/21/3 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 56th Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Polygon Wood, Belgium |
Age at death | 28 |
Age at death from cemetery records | 28 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The 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 | 163 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Son of William and Jane SHARMAN, Jugiong, New South Wales |
Medals |
Military Medal 'At LOUVERVAL on the 2nd and 3rd April, 1917, Private SHARMAN worked continuously for 36 hours without rest, carrying wounded men until the work was finished and he was absolutely exhausted. Altogether this soldier made about forty trips for wounded, exposed to heavy machine gun rifle and shell fire. Not only did Private SHARMAN show great bravery, endurance and devotion to duty, but he continually encouraged other stretcher bearers and guided them to where wounded lay. He showed great bravery and devotion to duty.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 174 Date: |
Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Joined 4th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 6 January 1916. transferred to 56th Bn, 13 February 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 29 June 1916. On leave to England, 8 January 1917; rejoined unit, 26 January 1917. Awarded the Military Medal. To Summer Rest Camp, 27 May 1917; rejoined Bn, 12 June 1917. Killed in action, 24 September 1917. Military Medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |