The AIF Project

James CLOUGH

Regimental number2352
Place of birthLondon, England
Other NamesSTRAPP, Percy Clough
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationShip rigger
AddressPortarlington, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height5' 4.75"
Weight150 lbs
Next of kinUncle, Charles Brown, Harbormaster, Portarlington, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date6 May 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name14th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/31/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board RMS Persia on 10 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll14th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 15 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records27
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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
74
Other details

War service: proceeded to join unit, Zeitoun, Egypt, 9 October 1915. Taken on strength, 14th Bn, Mudros, 23 October 1915. Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 24 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 1 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 8 June 1916.

Admitted to New Zealand Stationary Hospital, 28 August 1916 (conjunctivitis); transferred to 12th General Hospital, Rouen, 3 September 1916 (otitis media); proceeded to join unit, 20 September 1916; rejoined 14th Bn, 22 September 1916.

Admitted to 3rd Casualty Clearing Station, 13 October 1916 (otitis media); transferred to 14th General Hospital, Wimereux, 16 October 1916; to England, 17 October 1916. Marched in to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 29 March 1917. Marched out to Windmill Camp, 26 April 1917, and transferred to 66th Bn, 28 April 1917. Appointed Lance Corporal, 10 August 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 12 September 1917; taken on strength, 14th Bn, 22 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 15 October 1917.

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

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