The AIF Project

Arthur Roy ASHTON

Regimental number2421
Place of birthSydney, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationCarpenter
AddressGlen View, Denham Street, Bondi, Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation29
Height5' 8.75"
Weight134 lbs
Next of kinFather, Julian Arthur Ashton, Glen View, Denham Street, Bondi, Sydney, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed in the Scottish Rifles, Citizen Military Forces, for 4 months.
Enlistment date21 May 1915
Place of enlistmentCasino, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name9th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/26/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A9 Shropshire on 20 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll49th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Age at death32
Age at death from cemetery records32
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
47
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Julian and Elizabeth ASHTON; Wife: Mary A. Ashton, The Hospital, Tiverton, Devon, England
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Admitted to 3rd Australian General Hospital, Mudros, 16 November 1915; discharged to duty, 9 December 1915; joined unit at Lemnos, 10 December 1915.

Disembarked Alexandria, 4 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Transferred to 49th Bn, 25 February 1916.

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

Admitted to 13th Australian Field Ambulance, 21 July 1916 (debility); transferred to England, 27 July 1916; admitted to Military Hospital, Chatham, 28 July 1916; discharged to No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 12 October 1916.

Marched out to No. 4 Depot, Wareham, 9 December 1916.

Found guilty, 13 December 1916, of being absent without leave and being outside the camp boundary without a pass: awarded 72 hours' detention.

Found guilty, 8 March 1917, of drunkenness and being outside the camp without a pass: awarded 4 days' Field Punishment No 2.

Found guilty of being absent without leave, 20-21 May 1917: awarded forfeiture of 4 days' pay.

Proceeded overseas to France, 29 May 1917; rejoined unit, 21 June 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ASHTON Arthur Roy

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