The AIF Project

James Aaron BAKER

Regimental number555
Place of birthGoondiwindi, Queensland
SchoolLake Albert State School, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationMoulder
AddressLithgow, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation26
Height5' 6.5"
Weight142 lbs
Next of kinFather, Edward Baker, Lake Albert via Wagga, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed in the 3rd Battery, Artillery Volunteers,Citizen Military Forces, Wagga, New South Wales.
Enlistment date24 August 1914
Place of enlistmentSydney, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentDriver
Unit nameField Artillery Brigade 1, Brigade Ammunition Column
AWM Embarkation Roll number13/29/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board Transport A8 Argyllshire on 18 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll1st Battalion
FateKilled in Action 3 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Belgium
Age at death from cemetery records29
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
28
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: E.M. and Louisa BAKER, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Native of Goondiwindi, Queensland
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

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

Admitted to Convalescent Camp, Ras el Tin (date not recorded); transferred to Transfer hospital, Abbassia, 31 July 1915; discharged, pending return to Australia, 3 August 1915 (venereal case).

Commenced return to Australia, 3 august 1915.

Rejoined unit from Australia, Suez, 12 December 1915.

Transferred to 2nd Division Artillery, 21 February 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 25 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 1 April 1916.

Found guilty, 21 April 1916, of (a) absent from piquet parade after having been duly warned; (b) drunkenness: awarded 3 days' Field Punishment No 2.

Transferred to 1st Field Artillery Brigade from 21st Field Artillery Brigade, 15 May 1916.

Transferred to Trench Mortar Battery, 4 August 1916.

Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 9 November 1916, and transferred to 38th Casualty Clearing Station, and then to Ambulance Train No 7; admitted to 10 General Hospital, Rouen, 10 November 1916 (not yet diagnosed); discharged to No 2 Convalescent Depot, 16 November 1916; to Base Depot, Etaples, 16 November 1916; rejoined 1st Trench Mortar Brigade, 1 December 1916.

Remustered as Gunner, 6 May 1917.

Admitted to 5th Division Rest Station, 10 May 1917 (laryngitis); transferred to 9th Casualty Clearing Station, 13 May 1917; to Ambulance Train No 9, 14 May 1917, and admitted to 6th General Hospital, 18 May 1917; transferred to England, 30 May 1917, and admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital, 31 May 1917; discharged on furlough, 19 July 1917, to report to No 1 Command Depot, 2 August 1917.

Found guilty, 8 August 1917, of being absent without leave from 3.30 pm, 2 August, till 4.30 pm, 7 August 1917: awarded 7 days' confined to camp, and forfeited 6 days' pay under Royal Warrant.

Marched out to Overseas Training Brigade, Longbridge Deverill, 9 august 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 17 September 1917; taken on strength, 1st Bn, Belgium, 28 September 1917.

Killed in action, 3 October 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, BAKER James Aaron

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