James Henry ADAM

Regimental number2335
Place of birthLondon, England
SchoolWest Hampstead School, London, England
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationCarpenter
AddressRosewood, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation34
Height5' 7.5"
Weight150 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Emily Adam, Hendon, London, England
Previous military serviceServed in the South African War in the Town Guards.
Enlistment date22 January 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll22 January 1916
Place of enlistmentBrisbane, Queensland
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Pioneer Battalion, Reinforcement 4
AWM Embarkation Roll number14/16/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A50 Itonus on 8 August 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll4th Pioneer Battalion
FateKilled in Action 16 October 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Date of death16 October 1917
Age at death36
Age at death from cemetery records36
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
173
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: George and Emily Ann ADAM, 1, 2 and 3, Marylebone Passage, Wells Street, London, England
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Brisbane, 8 August 1916; disembarked Plymouth, 18 October 1916.

Marched out to Australian Base Details from Turcott, Fouvant, 31 October 1916.

Embarked Folkestone to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 8 January 1917; marched into 4th Australian Divisional Base, Etaples, 8 January 1917.

Marched out to join unit in the field, 28 January 1917; taken on strength, 4th Pioneer Bn, 28 January 1917.

Proceeded on leave, 8 September 1917; rejoined unit from leave, 20 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 16 October 1917; buried on the battlefield, map reference D.27.b.14.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ADAM James Henry