The AIF Project

Horace Frederick EAGLE

Regimental number1616
Place of birthSt Ives, Huntingdonshire, England
SchoolBoard School
Age on arrival in Australia36
ReligionMethodist
OccupationCoachsmith
AddressWoombye, North Coast Line, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation33
Next of kinFather, Mr Thomas Eagle, St Ives, Hants, England
Previous military serviceServed for 9 years in the Marine Artillery, United Kingdom.
Enlistment date20 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentBombardier
Unit nameField Artillery Brigade 3, Battery 7
AWM Embarkation Roll number13/31/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A22 Rangatira on 25 September 1914
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal Roll11th Field Artillery Brigade
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Distinguished Conduct Medal (Awarded 1 January 1918)


Recommendation date: 12 August 1917

FateKilled in Action 11 October 1917
Age at death36
Age at death from cemetery records36
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), 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
16
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Sarah and the late Thomas EAGLE. Native of St. Ives, Hunts, England
Medals

Distinguished Conduct Medal

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty and consistent good work. He has rendered valuable service, particularly in two important engagements, and has always set a splendid example of coolness and determination. He frequently attended to wounded men under heavy shell fire.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 137
Date: 30 August 1918

Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 4 April 1915.

Wounded in action, and admitted to Hospital Ship 'Ionian', 30 May 1915 (gun shot wound, right thigh). Discharged from 17th General Hospital, Alexandria, 25 May 1915. Returned to Gallipoli; appointed Temporary Bombardier, 9 December 1915. Disembarked Alexandria from Gallipoli, 22 December 1915.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 1 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 16 June 1916.

Wounded in action, Belgium, remaining at duty, 10 June 1917.

Wounded in action, 31 July 1917 (gun shot wound, right thigh and right buttock); admitted to 51st General Hospital, Etaples, 1 August 1917; discharged to Base Depot, 13 August 1917; rejoined unit, Belgium, 15 September 1917.

Killed in action, 11 October 1917.

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

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