The AIF Project

Nial Joseph MULLARKEY

Regimental number900
Place of birthRockdale, New South Wales
SchoolSt Joseph College, Hunters Hill, Sydney, New South Wales
Other trainingSydney University
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationStudent
AddressKogarah, Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Next of kinMother, Mrs E Mullarkey, Kogarah, Sydney, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed as 2nd Lieut in St Joseph's College Trainees CMF.
Enlistment date19 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name1st Battalion, H Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/18/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board Transport A19 Afric on 18 October 1914
Rank from Nominal Roll2nd Lieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll1st Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularLeft Australia with AIF, and joined 7th Royal Munster Fusiliers. Was in action with latter in retreat from Servia, rejoined AIF in France. He was champion school boy cricketer and represented Public School of NSW in cricket and football in 1914 and 1914.
FateKilled in Action 5 November 1916
Place of death or woundingFrance
Age at death21
Age at death from cemetery records21
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
30
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Frederick and Elizabeth MULLARKEY, Kogarah, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrothers: 650 Pte Clarence MULLARKEY, 2nd Bn, returned to Australia, 11 March 1916; 1588 Company Sergeant Major Hubert William MULLARKEY, 4th Bn, killed in action, 18 August 1916; [1047] Lt James Charles MULLARKEY, 2nd Pioneer Bn, returned to Australia, 13 February 1917; 1365 Lance Corporal Kevin Vincent MULLARKEY, 20th Bn, returned to Australia, 22 February 1917.

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