The AIF Project

James MOAR

Regimental number2719
Place of birthNewcastle New South Wales
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationClerk
Address140 Clarendon Street, East Melbourne, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Next of kinSister, Mrs W Corks, Apollo Bay, Victoria
Enlistment date2 August 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name23rd Battalion, 6th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/40/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 27 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll23rd Battalion
Recommendations (Medals and Awards)

Military Medal


'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as stretcher bearer during the action near Bullecourt, working for many hours under shell and machine gun fire.'
Recommendation date: 14 May 1917

FateKilled in Action 2 October 1917
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
99
Medals

Military Medal

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as stretcher bearers during the action near BULLECOURT on 3rd May 1917. These men [MOAR and 2469 E. THOMAS, 1961 O. RIX, 3846 C.E.S. HARRIP, 3768 F. BYRNE] worked with a most praiseworthy endurance for many hours under shell and Machine Gun fire to assist their wounded comrades, and by their fearless conduct inspired others. The last mentioned two men were wounded during this work.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 189
Date: 8 November 1917

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