James NASH

Regimental number1261
Place of birthYapton, Sussex, England
SchoolSt John's, Oakfield, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England
Age on arrival in Australia21
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarm labourer
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation27
Next of kinMother, Mrs E Nash, 4 High Parksquare, Oakfield, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date20 July 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll14 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Light Horse Regiment, 9th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number10/9/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A20 Hororata on 27 September 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll2nd Light Horse Regiment
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularAttestation Form gives place of birth as Littlehampton, Sussex, England.
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Place of death or woundingMessines, Belgium
Age at death27
Age at death from cemetery records27
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), 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
9
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Elizabeth NASH, 4 High Park Square, Oakfield, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Posted to and taken on strength, B Squadron, 4th Light Horse Regiment, Heliopolis, 2 January 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 21 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 27 March 1916. Transferred to 2nd Anzac Mounted Regiment, 7 July 1916.

Proceeded on leave, 31 December 1916; returned from leave, 13 January 1917. Detached for duty with New Zealand Division, 16 April 1917; returned from detachment, 22 April 1917.

Missing in action (believed killed), 7 June 1917; confirmed as killed in action, 7 June 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal