The AIF Project

John Peter LAMBERT

Regimental number2739
Place of birthAdelaide, South Australia
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
AddressMr Peel, Antren Station, Ewington, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation39
Height5' 4"
Weight134 lbs
Next of kinFather, Thomas Lambert, Park Street, South Melbourne, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date17 August 1915
Place of enlistmentHughenden, Queensland
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name25th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/42/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 21 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll9th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 20 September 1917
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.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
56
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Found guilty, Zeitoun, 16 February 1916, of (1) being absent from 6 pm parade appointed by his CO, and remaining absent until apprehended by Military Police at 10.30 pm; (2) causing a disturbance: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No 2.

Allotted to and proceeded to join 9th Bn, 27 February 1916; joined Bn at Habieta, 28 February 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 27 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 3 April 1916.

Found guilty, 28 June 1916, of failing to appear at the place of parade appointed by his CO, 26 June 1916: awarded 168 hours' Field Punishment No 2.

Transferred to 3rd Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery, 31 July 1916; taken on strength, 2 August 1916.

Admitted to 1st Field Ambulance Divisional Rest Station, 30 September 1916 (bronchitis); transferred to 12th Casualty Clearing Station, 1 October 1916; discharged to duty, 11 October 1916; rejoined unit, in the field, 14 October 1916.

Admitted to 38th Casualty Clearing Station, 16 November 1916 (tachycardia); transferred to Ambulance Train, 18 November 1917, and admitted to 12th General Hospital, Rouen, 19 November 1916; transferred to No 2 Convalescent Depot, 26 November 1916; to Base Depot, Etaples, 2 December 1916.

Found guilty, 20 January 1917, of drunkenness, 17 January 1917: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No 2.

Transferred to England, 13 February 1917, and marched into No 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 17 February 1917.

Found guilty, 4 May 1917, of being drunk on duty on Town Bridge, 2 May 1917: awarded 7 days' Field Punishment No 2.

Marched into No 3 Command Depot, 4 June 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 6 August 1917; rejoined 9th Bn, in the field, 22 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, LAMBERT John Peter

Print format    


© The AIF Project 2024, UNSW Canberra. Not to be reproduced without permission.