The AIF Project

Stanley William AGNEW

Regimental number4727
Place of birthMillicent, South Australia
SchoolMillicent Public School, South Australia
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationLabourer
AddressGlencoe, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 4.5"
Weight140 lbs
Next of kinFather, Mr J Agnew, Glencoe, South Australia
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date13 October 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll13 October 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name8th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/25/5
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A18 Wiltshire on 7 March 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll57th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularHe received Good Conduct Stripe.
FateKilled in Action 26 September 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Date of death26 September 1917
Age at death23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), 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
163
Other details

War service: Western Front

Taken on strength, 57th Bn, Egypt, 26 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 17 June 1916; disembarked, Marseilles, 23 June 1916.

Admitted to 15th Field Ambulance (synovitis knee), France, 11 August 1916; admitted to 3rd Canadian General Hospital, France, 13 August 1916; transferred to Marlborough, 16 August 1916; marched in, 5th Australian Divisional Depot, Etaples, 19 August 1916.

Admitted to 26th General Hospital (bronchitis), Etaples, 2 September 1916; transferred to 6th Convalescent Depot, Etaples, 11 September 1916; discharged to 5th Divisional Base Depot, Etaples, 16 September 1916.

Marched out to rejoin unit in the field, 30 September 1916; rejoined 57th Bn, in the field, 2 October 1916.

Admitted to 15th Field Ambulance (measles), France, 10 October 1916; admitted to 7th General Hospital, St Omer, 12 October 1916; transferred to 14th Stationary Hospital, St Omer, 10 November 1916; embarked Boulogne for treatment in Britain, 13 November 1916; admitted Middlesex War Hospital (debility), Napsbury, 13 November 1916; transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, 21 November 1916; discharged to depot, Wareham, 12 December 1916.

Admitted to Military Hospital (mumps), Wareham, 14 February 1917; transferred to Isolation Hospital, Wareham, 17 February 1917; marched in, No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham 6 March 1917.

Marched in, No. 3 Command Depot, Hurdcott, 17 March 1917.

Marched in, No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 20 March 1917.

Found guilty, 21 March 1917, of having in his possession an altered pay book, 28 January 1917, Wareham: awarded 10 days detention.

Marched in, Hardening and Drafting Depot, Perham Downs, 7 April 1917.

Found guilty by District Court Martial held at Perham Downs, 5 May 1917, of going absent without leave after being warned for embarkation overseas, Perham Downs, 18 April 1917: pleaded not guilty, found guility, awarded 60 days detention and forfeits 73 days pay.

Embarked Southampton to rejoin unit in the field, 25 June 1917; marched in, 5th Australian Divisional Depot, Havre, 26 June 1917.

Marched out to rejoin unit in the field, 17 July 1917; rejoined 57th Bn, in the field, 20 July 1917.

Unexpired portion of sentence (4 days) remitted, 21 July 1917.

Killed in action, Polygon Wood, 26 September 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, AGNEW Stanley William

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