The AIF Project

Andrew ANDERSON

Regimental number561
Place of birthBundaberg, Queensland
SchoolBarolin State School, Queensland
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationFitter
AddressBarolin via Bundaberg, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation20
Height5' 7.625"
Weight129 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs A Anderson, Barolin via Bundaberg, Queensland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date30 January 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name25th Battalion, Machine Gun Section
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/42/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on 29 June 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll7th Company, Machine Gun Corps
FateKilled in Action 20 September 1917
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 31), 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
177
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Commemorated on Barolin State School Roll of Honour, Elliott Heads Progress Hall, Elliott Heads, Queensland. Parents: Andrew and Christina ANDERSON, Bargara, Bundaberg, Queensland
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 4 September 1915.

Promoted Corporal, Machine Gun Section, 20 September 1915.

Promoted Temporary Sergeant, 12 December 1915.

Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 9 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Ceased to hold temporary rank, 20 January 1916.

Transferred to Brigade Machine Gun Section, 2 March 1916; taken on strength, 7th Machine Gun Company, 3 March 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 14 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 21 March 1916.

Promoted Sergeant, 10 April 1916.

Mentioned in 2nd Division Routine Orders 'for good and gallant conduct in connection with the recent hard fighting round Pozieres'.

Appointed Acting Company Sergeant Major, 5 October 1916.

Joined the Machine Gun Officers Cadet Bn, Bisley, England, 25 november 1916; appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 24 March 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 26 May 1917; joined 7th Machine Gun Company, in the field, 6 June 1917.

Promoted Lieutenant, 10 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917.

Statement from Lt J. BIGGS, for CO: 'The above named Officer [Lt ANDERSON] was killed on the morning of the 20.9.17 - (approximately 900 yards East of WESTHOEK Sheet 28) near 4 pillboxes ... I buried him alongside a road 20 yards from the Pill Boxes the next morning, about 6 days later put a cross over him with all particulars.' Grave subsequently lost.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ANDERSON Andrew

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