Alfred John Everleigh CARMICHAEL

Regimental number1917
Place of birthYoung, New South Wales
SchoolYoung Public School, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationPrinter
AddressLittle Spring Creek, Young, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation20
Height5' 8.5"
Weight136 lbs
Next of kinMrs R Carmichael, Little Spring Creek, Young, New South Wales
Previous military serviceAttached to 18th Bty, Australian Field Artillery, Young, New South Wales.
Enlistment date21 January 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name3rd Battalion, 5th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/20/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A55 Kyarra on 13 April 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll55th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 26 September 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death22
Age at death from cemetery records22
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
160
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: James and Melinda CARMICHAEL, Yass Street, Young, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1711 Driver James CARMICHAEL, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade, returned to Australia, 12 May 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Taken on strength, 3rd Bn, Gallipoli, 14 June 1915. Wounded in action, 7-12 August 1915 (gun shot wound, left buttock); transferred by 'Dunluce Castle' to Malta; disembarked Malta, 12 August 1915. Embarked for England, 26 August 1915; admitted to 4th London General Hospital, Denmark Hill, SE, 3 September 1915. Embarked to rejoin MEF, 15 November 1915; disembarked Lemnos, 3 December 1915; rejoined 3rd Bn, Mudros, 24 December 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 29 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Transferred to 55th Bn, Tel el Kebir,13 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 29 June 1916. On leave, 11 July 1916; rejoined from leave, 18 July 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal, 22 August 1916. Admitted to 45th Casualty Clearing Station, 27 November 1916; transferred to 1st Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 29 November 1916; to 51st General Hospital, Etaples, 3 December 1916; discharged to Base Depot, 6 January 1917; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 41 days. Rejoined 55th Bn, 17 January 1917. To 5th Army Rest Camp, 27 May 1917; rejoined unit, 12 June 1917.

Admitted to 8th Field Ambulance, 14 June 1917 (pyrexia, unknown origin), and transferred to 5th Divisional Rest Station; to 2nd Divisional Rest Station, 16 June 1917; to 56th Casualty Clearing Station, 18 June 1917; rejoined 55th Bn, 25 June 1917.

Killed in action, 26 September 1917.

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

Mother, Mrs R. Carmichael, wrote to Base Records, 5 May 1920: 'The Father deserted me 17 years ago, leaving me with a large family to strugle for myself & as far as I know the Father of deceased is still alive, but his whereabouts are still unknown to me. the deceased boy was one of my whole & sole supporters.'