The AIF Project

George Henry TARLING

Regimental number2403
Place of birthRockhampton, Queensland
SchoolState School, Rockhampton, Queensland
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationSalesman
AddressBrisbane, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height5' 8"
Weight133 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Annie Tarling, Stanley Street, Rockhampton, Queensland
Previous military serviceServed in the Port Curtis Infantry, Citizen Military Forces, Queensland.
Enlistment date5 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name9th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/26/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A9 Shropshire on 20 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal Roll49th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Place of death or woundingFrance
Age at death26
Age at death from cemetery records26
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
149
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Annie TARLING, Stanley Street, Rockhampton, Queensland
Family/military connectionsBrother: 679 Corporal Charles William TARLING, 13th Bn, killed in action, France, 16 August 1916.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Joined 9th Bn at Gallipoli, 18 November 1915. Admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance, Lemnos, 25 November 1915 (jaundice); rejoined unit, 2 December 1915. Appointed Lance Corporal, 4 December 1915. Disembarked Alexandria ex Mudros, 4 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Transferred to 49th Bn, Habeita, 25 February 1916.

Admitted to 13th Field Ambulance, Tel el Kebir, 15 April 1916 (appendicitis); transferred to 1st Australian Stationary Hospital, Ismailia, 15 April 1916; to 3rd Australian General Hospital, Abbassia, 26 April 1916; discharged to Base Details, 11 May 1916. Taken on strength, 49th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 27 February 1916. Admitted to 3rd British Red Cross Convalescent Depot, Montazah, 11 May 1916 (appendicitis); discharged to duty, 7 June 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 11 June 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 23 June 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 28 August 1916. Rejoined 49th Bn, 16 September 1916.

Promoted Corporal, 6 September 1916. On leave to England, 15 January 1917. Admitted to hospital while returning from leave, 1 February 1917; transferred to 51st General Hospital, Etaples, 16 February 1917; discharged to Base Depot, 1 May 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 75 days. Rejoined unit, 17 May 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917.

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

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