The AIF Project

John Patrick CONROY

Regimental number1123
Place of birthGungaree, Victoria
SchoolOrmond Roman Catholic School, Victoria
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationRailway repairer
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation32
Next of kinSister, Miss J Conroy, Cranbourne, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date28 September 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name6th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/23/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 22 December 1914
Regimental number from Nominal Roll2146
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll59th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 26 September 1917
Place of death or woundingFrance
Age at death36
Age at death from cemetery records36
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
167
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Thomas and Bridger CONROY. Native of Bungaree, Victoria
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Wounded in action, 25-30 April 1915 (gun shot wound, left arm); admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Heliopolis, 29 April 1915; transferred to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Cairo, 30 April 1915; transferred to Base Details, fit for duty, 24 May 1915. Embarked for Australia on board HT 'Borda', escort duty, 15 November 1915.

Re-enlisted, 7 April 1916. Disembarked Plymouth, England, 2 September 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 15 September 1916; taken on strength, 59th Bn, 8 October 1916. Detached to 4th Army School of Instruction, 5 November 1916; rejoined Bn, 12 November 1916. Admitted to Anzac Rest Station, 15 December 1916 (trench feet);transferred to England, 27 December 1916; admitted to 3rd London General Hospital, 29 December 1916; discharged to Administrative Headquarters, 22 January 1917. Marched in to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, from furlough, 8 February 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 16 July 1917; rejoined Bn, 2 August 1917.

Killed in action, 26 September 1917.

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

Print format    


© The AIF Project 2024, UNSW Canberra. Not to be reproduced without permission.