The AIF Project

Henry Charles BRIGHTON

Regimental number5054
Place of birthGol Gol New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationEngine driver
AddressMildura, Victoria
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation26
Next of kinWife, Mrs J M Brighton, Orange Avenue, Mildura, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date11 February 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll26 January 1916
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name6th Battalion, 16th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/23/4
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A23 Suffolk on 1 April 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll6th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 30 October 1917
Place of death or woundingBelgium
Age at death27
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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
46
Medals

Military Medal

'During the operations at BROODSEINDE RIDGE east of YPRES on 4/5th October, 1917, this N.C.O. was in charge of a Lewis Gun Section and during the attack on a strong point showed great initiative in handling his team. He personally worked his gun under heavy fire into a good position on the right flank and then under cover of his fire personally bombed the enemy with great effect, killing or capturing the garrison of the post. When the final objective was reached he went forward and quickly selected a commanding possition from which he gave great protection to the men who were consolidating.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 95
Date: 27 June 1918

Family/military connectionsBrother: 11924 Gunner Archie BRIGHTON, 12th Field Artillery Brigade, returned to Australia, 1 November 1917.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Medals: Military Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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