Regimental number | 6213 |
Date of birth | |
Place of birth | Laura, South Australia |
Religion | Presbyterian |
Occupation | Station hand |
Address | c/o Cork Station via Winton, Queensland |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 25 |
Height | 5' 3" |
Weight | 124 lbs |
Next of kin | Mother, Mrs S A Acott, Laura, South Australia |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
Place of enlistment | Townsville, Queensland |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 9th Battalion, 20th Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/26/4 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A46 Clan Mcgillivray on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 9th Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Menin Road, Ypres, Belgium |
Age at death | 26 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), 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 | 54 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Commemorated on (new) Laura District Honour Roll, South Australia. |
Family/military connections | Brother: 77 Gunner William Thomas ACOTT, 14th Field Artillery Brigade, returned to Australia, 20 December 1918. |
Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Brisbane, 7 September 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 2 November 1916; marched into 3rd Training Bn, Perham Downs, England, 9 November 1916. Admitted to Parkhouse Hospital (mumps), England, 14 December 1916; rejoined 3rd Training Bn, Perham Downs, 7 January 1917. Admitted to Fargo Hospital (pyrexia), Perham Downs, 8 February 1917; rejoined 3rd Training Bn, Perham Downs, 15 February 1917. Embarked Folkestone to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 10 April 1917. Taken on strength, 9th Bn, France, 18 April 1917. Wounded in action, France, 7 May 1917; admitted 3rd Casualty Clearing Station (shrapnel wound, arm), 7 May 1917; admitted to 7th Canadian General Hospital, Etaples, 7 May 1917; embarked Calais for England, 15 May 1917; admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, 15 May 1917; discharged for furlough, 11 June 1917. Marched into 1st Comm. Depot, Perham Downs, 25 June 1917. Marched into Overseas Training Depot, Perham Downs, 29 June 1917. Embarked Southampton to rejoin unit in the field, 16 July 1917; marched into 1st Australian Division Base Depot, Havre, 17 July 1917. Proceeded to rejoin unit, 28 July 1917; rejoined 9th Bn in the field, 5 August 1917. Killed in action, Menin Road, 20 September 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Sources | NAA: B2455, ACOTT Albert Walter |