The AIF Project

Charles Percy HIRD

Regimental number8973
Place of birthAdelaide, South Australia
SchoolMay College, Adelaide, and Christian Brothers School, Perth, Western Australia
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationClerk
AddressPerth, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation26
Next of kinFather, C M M Hird, 20 Brookman's Buildings, Barrack Street, Perth, Western Australia
Enlistment date14 June 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll16 June 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name2nd Australian Stationary Hospital, 14th Reinforcement
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A28 Miltiades on 12 February 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll11th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour Circular'On leaving school entered an Insurance Office left to ..... his Fathers ..... the land boom started in W.A. He and his brother got the land fever and went farming, they were always fond of animals and sport. At time of joining the AIF he had a fast mare in training for racing. He got a gold medal for best batting average in 1914/15 from the Upper Swan Cricket Club.' (details from father)
FateKilled in Action 21 September 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death28
Age at death from cemetery records28
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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.

Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Charles and Emily HIRD, Brookman's Buildings, Perth, Western Australia. Native of South Australia
Family/military connectionsBrother: 29257 Gunner Harold Eustace HIRD, 3rd Divisional Ammunition Column, returned to Australia, 18 December 1918. Both brothers applied for enlistment at the 1st and 2nd call for men by the time they got to Perth all vacancies were filled. They were turned away twice.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

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