The AIF Project

Timothy Kieron FITZPATRICK

Regimental number10153
Place of birthErskineville, New South Wales
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationBookkeeper
Address273 Lawrence Street, Alexandria, New South Wales
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation22
Next of kinWife, Mrs E Fitzpatrick, 273 Lawrence Street, Alexandria, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed in the voluntary Senior Cadets.
Enlistment date11 September 1915
Rank on enlistmentGunner
Unit nameReinforcement 2
AWM Embarkation Roll number13/33/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A35 Berrima on 17 December 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSapper
Unit from Nominal Roll2nd Divisional Signal Company
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Military Medal


Great bravery bravery and devotion to duty as linesman in laying and reparing lines under heavy fire, notably in operations on the Somme.
Recommendation date: 2 October 1916

FateKilled in Action 22 July 1917
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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
25
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 25 March 1916.

Transferred to 22nd Field Artillery Brigade, 13 May 1916.

Admitted to 14th Field Ambulance, 7 December 1916 (gastro-enteritis); rejoined unit, 11 December 1916.

Transferred to 5th Field Artillery Brigade and posted to Headquarters, 2 February 1917.

Transferred to 2nd Divisional Signal Company, 11 May 1917.

Killed in action, 22 July 1917.

Statement, Red Cross File No 1070403F, 7089 2nd Corporal W.H. PATTERSON, 2nd Division Signal Company (patient, 5th Southern General Hospital, Portsmouth, England), 15 December 1917: 'On July 22nd/17 the 2nd Division was at Hudken [sic] House, Crab Crawl, Ypres Sector, Fitzpatrick came out from his dug-out to get some fresh air. A shell came over and killed him instantly.'

Second statement, 7637 Corporal A.M. STEVEN, 5th Field Artillery Brigade Headquarters (patient, Edmonton Military Hospital, England), 17 December 1917: 'Sapper Fitzpatrick was killed on July 22nd by a direct hit from a shell at Larch Wood on the Ypres front. He was buried 2 days later near the spot where he was killed. I made a wooden cross, bearing his name & particulars, which I gave to the chaplain.'

Third statement (letter), Sapper S.H. McNAMARA, 4 January 1918: 'Re No. 10153 Spr. T.K. Fitzpatrick who was killed on 22.7.17. I understand he was buried close to where he fell, a spot known as "Rudkin House" in the old salient Ypres, and was marked by a rough cross. Fitzpatrick was a man about 35 years of age about 5'6" in height with brown hair rather scanty. He was badly smashed, head, leg, & left arm shattered.'

Fourth statement, 7722 Pte S.H. McNAMARA, 2nd Signalling Company (patient, Hill Road Hospital, Liverpool, England), 28 January 1918: 'On July 22/17 three of our Section including Fitzpatrick were on observation work near Ypres on Observatory Hill near Rudkin House, when a 5.9 shell landed quite near us and Fitzpatrick was badly hit on the left side of [the] head, left arm, shoulder, side and leg. He was killed instantaneously. that night he was buried and I saw the grave afterwards. He was the only one buried in it - a rough cross with his name, number and unit marked the spot. It was only 30 yards away from the opening into tunnels called Rudkin House Opening. I brought his papers and tunic down to Headquarters, and handed them to an officer. I think he came away with an early reinforcement of the 5th Field Artillery Brigade. He was formerly a Gunner in the the 22nd Brigade (A.I.F.) F.A. Headquarters Staff. When the 22nd A.I.F. were broken up in Jan. '17, he went to the 5th Brigade Headquarters and then to us.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesRed Cross File No 1070403F

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