The AIF Project

Francis David AMIET

Regimental number219
Place of birthBoolarra, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarmer
AddressBoolara, South Gippsland, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Height5' 6"
Weight140 lbs
Next of kinF. Amiet, Boolara, South Gippsland, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 18 months in the 13th Light Horse Regiment
Enlistment date26 August 1914
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll26 August 1914
Place of enlistmentMelbourne, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Light Horse Regiment, B Squadron
AWM Embarkation Roll number10/9/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board Transport A18 Wiltshire on 19 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll2nd Light Horse Regiment
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Age at death from cemetery records26
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
9
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Francis and Mary AMIET, Boolara, Victoria
Family/military connectionsBrother: 390 Pte Charles AMIET, 2nd Machine Gun Bn, returned to Australia, 4 June 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 20 May 1915.

Transferred to Machine Gun Section, Gallipoli, 21 September 1915.

Admitted to hospital (sick), Anzac, 18 November 1915; admitted 1st Australian General Hospital (odema legs, slight), Heliopolis, 23 November 1915; discharged to duty, Heliopolis, 17 January 1916.

Rejoined 4th Light Horse Regiment, Heliopolis, 22 January 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 21 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 27 March 1916.

Taken on strength, 1st Australian and New Zealand Mounted Regiment, France, 13 May 1916.

Transferred to 2nd Anzac Mounted Regiment, France, 7 July 1916.

Proceeded on leave, France, 28 November 1916; rejoined unit from leave, 11 December 1916.

Detached for duty with Anti Aircraft Section, 2nd Anzac Corps, France, 11 April 1917.

Detached for duty with the New Zealand Division, France, 16 April 1917; rejoined unit from detachment, 22 April 1917.

Detached to Anti-Aircraft Section, 2nd Anzac Corps, 25 May 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, AMIET Francis David

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