The AIF Project

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.

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 4 September 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 29 October 1916; marched into 9th Training Bn.

Proceeded overseas to France, 20 December 916; taken on strength, 34th Bn, in the field, 18 January 1917.

Wounded in action, 7 June 1917 (gun shot wound, buttock), and admitted to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station; transferred by Ambulance Train and admitted to 56th General Hospital, Etaples; transferred to England, 10 June 1917, and admitted to 1st London General Hospital; discharged on furlough, 20 July 1917, to report to No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 3 August 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 25 August 1917; rejoined Bn, in the field, 2 September 1917.

Detached to Bath Picquet, 14 September 1917; rejoined Bn, 23 September 1917.

Killed in action, 12 October 1917.

Statement, Red Cross File, 3050 Pte C. GRAY, B Company, 34th Bn, 11 September 1919: 'Informant described Dean as about 5ft. 6-8" high, nuggety build, ruddy complexion, aged 25/30. Informant states that they both belonged to "B" Company. On 12/10/1917 the Battalion was in action at Passchendaele. They hopped over early in the morning and Informant understands that Dean was killed during that day. Two or three days later Informant found Dean lying where he had been killed and was also present when he was buried on the spot where he was found. It was apparent to Informant that Dean had been killed outright. The grave was marked for identification. According to Informant Dean was well thought of by his mates.'