The AIF Project

Leslie George COSGROVE

Regimental number3281
Place of birthAdelaide, South Australia
SchoolMagill, South Australia
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
AddressLorne Avenue, Magill, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinMother, Mrs M E Cosgrove, Lorne Avenue, Magill, South Australia
Previous military serviceServed in the Senior Cadets for 1 year; 3 years in the Citizen Military Forces.
Enlistment date26 July 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll21 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name10th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/27/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 27 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll50th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 13 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death23.4
Age at death from cemetery records23
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
150
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Denis and Mary COSGROVE, Lorne Avenue, Magill, South Australia
Family/military connectionsBrothers: 7285 Pte Harold Donald COSGROVE, 53rd Bn, returned to Australia, 9 December 1918; 119 Lance Sergeant Horace Donald COSGROVE, 15th Light Horse Regiment, returned to Australia, 7 January 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Allotted to and proceeded to join 50th Bn, Tel el Kebir, 29 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916.

Wounded in action, 16 August 1916 (shell wound, back); admitted to 1st Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 16 August 1916; discharged to 2nd Convalescent Depot, Rouen, 20 August 1916. Found guilty of being absent from parade without leave: awarded forfeiture of 5 days' pay. Rejoined unit, 11 September 1916.

Admitted to 4th Australian Field Ambulance, 20 October 1916 (rash, face); transferred to 138th Field Ambulance, 23 October 1916; to 41st Divisional Rest Station, 26 October 1916; to 10th Casualty Clearing Station, 26 October 1916; to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Wimereux, 27 October 1916. Transferred to England, 1November 1916 (rheumatism); admitted to 2nd eastern General Hospital, 2 November 1916. Transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, 2 February 1917; granted furlough, 26 February 1917, to report to No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 13 March 1917. Marched into No. 3 Command Depot from Wareham, 17 March 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 13 June 1917; rejoined Bn, Belgium, 2 July 1917.

Found guilty, while on active service, of disobedience of GRO 3 May 1917, of consuming iron rations, 3 September 1917: awarded forfeiture of 7 days' pay.

Killed in action, Belgium, 13 October 1917.

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

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