The AIF Project

Michael BOURNE

Regimental number2958
Place of birthLondon, England
SchoolAckmar Road County Council School, Fulham, London, England
Age on arrival in Australia14
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
AddressBalmain, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Next of kinMother, Mrs L Bourne, 11 Broadstairs Street, Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed in the Cadets, 30th Bn.
Enlistment date23 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name13th Battalion, 9th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/30/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on 30 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll45th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Place of death or woundingMessines, Belgium
Age at death20.6
Age at death from cemetery records20
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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
139
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: James and Lydia BOURNE, 10 Broadstairs Street, Balmain, New South Wales
Other details

War served: joined 13th Bn, Ismailia, 8 January 1916. transferred to 45th Bn, 10 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 7 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 14 June 1916. Found guilty, 14 July 1916, of being absent without leave, 6 am, 14 July 1916, until apprehended by MP, 7.15 pm, 15 July 1916: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 2 days' pay. Found guilty, 31 July 1916, of being absent from 9 am parade: awarded forfeiture of 1 days' pay. Found guilty, 11 August 1916, of (1) being absent without leave from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm (2) drunkenness: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 1 days' pay. Found guilty, 8 September 1916, of falling out of line of march without permission: awarded forfeiture of 2 days' pay. Found guilty, 26 October 1916, of (1) drunkenness (2) of being absent from 12.45 pm parade: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2. Found guilty,4 November 1916, of being absent from 2 pm parade, 3 November, and 9 am parade, 4 November 1916: awarded 28 days' Field Punishment No. 2.

Admitted to 11th Australian Field Ambulance, 11 November 1916 (septic sore, left foot); rejoined Bn, 13 November 1916. Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 22 November 1916 (trench feet); to 8th Stationary Hospital, Wimereux, 30 November 1916. Found guilty, 27 December 1916, of (1) being in Etaples not in possession of a pass (2) being in possession of spirits: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment no. 2. Rejoined Bn, 1 January 1917.

Missing in action, 7 June 1917. Court of Enquiry, 21 March 1918, determined fate as killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917.

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

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