The AIF Project

John Thomas ALLEN

Regimental number1612
Place of birthCarroll, New South Wales
SchoolCarroll Public School, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
AddressCarroll PO, Carroll, Gunnedah, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height6' 0"
Weight172 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Eliza Allen, Carroll PO, Carroll, Gunnedah, New South Wales
Enlistment date22 March 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll22 March 1916
Place of enlistmentNarrabri, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name36th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/53/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A72 Beltana on 13 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll36th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Place of death or woundingFrance
Age at death26
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), 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
126
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John Thomas and Eliza ALLEN.
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1611 Pte Henry Francis ALLEN, 36th Bn, returned to Australia, 18 October 1917.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 13 May 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 9 July 1916.

Embarked Southampton to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 22 November 1916.

Admitted to 11th Australian Field Ambulance (scalded foot), in the field, 23 May 1917; transferred to 10th Australian Field Ambulance, 24 May 1917; transferred to 3rd Division Convalescent Camp, 31 May 1917.

Rejoined 36th Bn, Belgium, 12 June 1917.

Admitted to 11th Field Ambulance (abdominal pain), Belgium, 26 July 1917; discharged to reinforcements camp, 31 July 1917.

Rejoined 36th Bn, Belgium, 8 August 1917.

Found guilty, 24 October 1917, of conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that when in billets on the night of 23 August 1917 discharged his firearms: forfeits 10 days pay.

Reported missing, Belgium, 12 October 1917.

Court of Inquiry held in the field, 4 April 1918 pronounced fate, 'Killed in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917'.

According to Captain J. Juleff, 36th Bn: 'Allen was a member of No. 9 Lewis Gun team that went into action on the 12th October 1917 at Passchendaele. At about 12 noon the team of six men were in a shell hole, on the right of Bell View Hill. Some time between then and about 4pm the Lewis gun, the body of one of the men and the remains of others were found near the shell hole. I am of the opinion that Private Allen was killed by shell fire on the 12th October 1917'.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ALLEN John Thomas

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