Regimental number | 2706 |
Place of birth | Caltowie, South Australia |
Religion | Methodist |
Occupation | Farm labourer |
Address | Caltowie, South Australia |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 21.10 |
Height | 5' 10" |
Weight | 154 lbs |
Next of kin | Father, C W Wilsdon, Caltowie, South Australia |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
Place of enlistment | Oaklands, South Australia |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 4th Light Horse Field Ambulance |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A30 Borda on |
Regimental number from Nominal Roll | Commissioned |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Lieutenant |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 4th Light Horse Regiment |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Miscellaneous details (Nominal Roll) | Date of death incorrectly recorded on Nominal Roll as 23 April 1917. |
Age at death from cemetery records | 24 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The 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 | 61 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Commemorated on Caltowie Methodist Church Roll of Honour, now located in Caltowie Cemetery, South Australia. Commemorated on Caltowie War Memorial Tablet, South Australia. Photo: Peter Dennis. Parents: Charles William and Amy Spottiswoode WILSDON, Prospect, South Australia |
Medals |
Distinguished Conduct Medal 'For conspicuous gallantry in action, when he assisted to carry in many wounded men from an open area heavily swept by shell fire.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 184 Date: |
Family/military connections | Brother: 62467 Pte John Angus WILSDON, 5th South Australian Reinforcements, ship recalled owing to cessation of hostilities. |
Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Medals: Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Sources | NAA: B2455, WILSDON Walter Harry |