The AIF Project

Dawson NEWBERRY

Regimental number2269
Place of birthManning River, New South Wales
Place of birthTaree, New South Wales
SchoolSuperior Public School
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
AddressBooyong, Richmond River, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation37
Next of kinMrs Sarah Newberry, Booyong, Richmond River, New South Wales
Previous military service'He trained for years in the Cavalry.' (Mother) He wrote on Attestation Form: Served in the New South Wales Lancers; resigned on leaving the district.
Enlistment date31 August 1914
Place of enlistmentTownsville, Queensland
Rank on enlistmentDriver
Unit nameField Artillery Brigade 3, Military District 1
AWM Embarkation Roll number13/31/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board Transport A22 Rangatira on 25 September 1914
Rank from Nominal RollDriver
Unit from Nominal Roll3rd Field Artillery Brigade
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death40
Age at death from cemetery records40
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), 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
144
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Sarah NEWBERRY, Booyong, New South Wales. Native of Manning River, New South Wales
Other details

War service: embarked from Brisbane, 25 September 1914. Found guilty, on board HMAT A22, of obtaining beer under false pretences: awarded 3 days' confined to barracks. Found guilty, 15 December 1914, of breaking ship and being absent without leave: awarded 7 days' detention and fined 7/-. Found guilty, 25 December 1914, of being absent without leave: fined 10/-. Found guilty, 28 December 1915, of breaking custody: awarded 28 days' Field Punishment No. 2. Found guilty, 13 January 1915, of being absent from camp without leave for 3 days: fined 2 pounds and confined to camp for 21 days. Found guilty, 23 January 1915, of (1) escaping from custody; (2) drunkenness; (3) being absent from parade without leave: awarded 28 days' detention. Found guilty, 26 January 1915, of (1) escaping custody; (2) breaking camp; (3) being absent from camp without leave: still at large.

Embarked from Suez for return to Australia, 5 February 1915; arrived Melbourne, 11 March 1915; discharged at Melbourne for disciplinary reasons, 11 March 1915.

Re-enlisted as 3064 Pte Daniel NEWBURY, 7 August 1915; embarked, 5 October 1915 from Brisbane on board HMAT A69 'Warlida' with 15th Bn, 10th Reinforcements.

Admitted to hospital, Abbassia, 11 November 1915; discharged, 24 November 1915, after treatment for venereal disease. Transferred to 47th Bn, 9 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 2 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 9 June 1916.

Found guilty, 9 June 1916, of irregular conduct in that he failed to entrain: awarded 28 days' Field Punishment No. 2. Found guilty of (1) absence from parade, 18 July; (2) drunkenness, 18 July: awarded 72 hours' Field Punishment No. 2.

Found guilty by Field General Court Martial, 27 August 1916, of 'when on Active Service, absent without leave when on the line of march from 10.30 am, 18 August, to 10 am, 22 August 1916: awarded 1 year's imprisonment with hard labour. OC, 12th Infantry Brigade, wrote to 4th Australian Division, 9 December 1916: 'This man's conduct has been very good during the period mentioned, and while the Battalion was in the trenches his work and conduct has been exceptionally good.' GOC 4th Division remitted the sentence, 23 December 1916.

Admitted to 4th Australian Field Ambulance, 20 September 1916 (septic right elbow); rejoined unit, 8 October 1916. Found guilty of being out of his billetting area without the written leave of his CO, 2 November 1916: awarded 7 days' Field Punishment No. 2.

Proceeded to England, and marched out to HQ's Details, Perham Downs, 6 February 1917; proceeded overseas to France, and joined 4th Australian Division Base Depot, 9 February 1917. Found guilty of being absent without leave, 29 January-1 February 1917 (London): awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No. 2, and forfieted total of 17 days' pay.

Found guilty, Field General Court Martial, of when on Active Service absenting himself without leave from 9 am, 12 September, to 4 pm, 17 September 1917: awarded 40 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeited total of 65 days' pay.

Listed as missing in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917; Court of Enquiry, 11 March 1918, confirmed fate as killed in action.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Miscellaneous detailsTrue name: Daniel NEWBERRY

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