The AIF Project

Thomas Frank HERAUD

Regimental number869
Place of birthBrunswick, Victoria
SchoolSouth Melbourne State School, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationGrocer
Address88 Perry Street, Collingwood, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 6"
Weight157 lbs
Next of kinFather, L Heraud, 88 Perry Street, Collingwood, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date3 February 1915
Place of enlistmentMelbourne, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name21st Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/38/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 10 May 1915
Regimental number from Nominal RollCommissioned
Rank from Nominal Roll2nd Lieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll21st Battalion
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, 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
94
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Thomas and Elizabeth HERAUD
Medals

Distinguished Conduct Medal

'For conspicuous gallantry when commanding bomb carriers in action. By his pluck and determination he kept up the supply in the front line where bombs were urgently needed. He also, on his return trips,helped to evacuate the wounded, although he was shaken by a shell explosion.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 184
Date: 14 December 1916

Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 29 August 1915.

Appointed Corporal (Provisional), 20 October 1915.

Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 7 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evcauation).

Appointed Lance Sergeant, Canal Zone, 7 February 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 26 March 1916.

Promoted Temporary Sergeant, 1 August 1916.

Awarded Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Detached to attend No 2 Officer Cadet Bn, Pembroke College, Cambridge, 5 May 1917.

Appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 31 August 1917, and posted to General Infantry Reinforcements.

Proceeded overseas to France, 14 September 1917; joined 21st Bn, in the field, 20 September 1917.

Reported Wounded in Action, Belgium 4 October 1917; then reported Killed in Action, 4 October 1917.

Buried east of Zonnebeke Lake, Reference Sheet 2S.D28.B.05; grave subsequently lost.

Statement, Red Cross File No 1320506H, 5431 Pte J.M. WHYTE, 21st Bn, D Company (patient, 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, England), 15 February 1918: 'We were in a shell hole at Broodseinde, waiting to hop over when the enemy started a bombardment when Lt.H. [sic] got a piece of shrapnel through his shoulder. I dressed the wound which was a nasty one. I asked him if he was going back[;] he said he would go over with the men, this was about 5.30 A.M. I was wounded about an hour later and heard later on that he had been killed during the day. He was the Idol of the company, a splendid fellow for his men. He was a D.C.M. and has only just got his star.'

Second statement, 366 Sergeant E. DRAPER, 22nd Bn, 30 May 1918: 'He was killed outright just before we got to Broodsende ridge by a shell. We buried him the same day near where he fell. I was present and took back the burying party. The only thing I took off him was his pay-book which I have to a Sgt of the 21st Batt. We left his D.C.M. on his coat when we buried him.'

Medals: Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Miscellaneous detailsSurname incorrectly recorded on Embarkation Roll as HERAND.
SourcesNAA: B2455, HERAUD Thomas Frank
Red Cross File No 1320506H

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