The AIF Project

Fred Raymond GOULDING

Regimental number1839
Place of birthLismore, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarmer
AddressGeorgica via Lismore, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation22
Height5' 7.25"
Weight133 lbs
Next of kinFather, William Goulding, Georgica via Lismore, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date27 January 1916
Place of enlistmentLismore, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name42nd Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/59/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A42 Boorara on 16 August 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll42nd Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Distinguished Conduct Medal


Conspicuous courage and determination on 10 June 1917 at Schnitzel Farm.
Recommendation date: "Unspecified"

FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), 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
135
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Mary GOULDING, Baillie Street, North Lismore, New South Wales. Native of Lismore
Medals

Distinguished Conduct Medal

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst acting as a company runner. Four times he successfully carried messages through a heavy barrage from an isolated portion of the line, a distance of half a mile, on the last occasion returning exhausted and shaken by an explosion. In spite of this, he volunteered to take another message, and through his wonderful courage and determination his battalion was able to deal successfully with a difficult situation.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 219
Date: 20 December 1917

Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Brisbane, 16 August 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 13 October 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 21 November 1916.

Admitted to 10th Australian Field Ambulance, 9 April 1917 (influenza); transferred to Divisional Rest Camp, 22 April 1917; rejoined unit, 25 April 1917.

Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, 25 August 1917.

On furlough, 4 September 1917; rejoined unit from furlough, 15 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 4 September 1917. Buried at a site approximately ? mile North North-West of Broodseinde, Belgium. Grave subsequently lost.

Medals: Distinguished Conduct Medal, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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