Frederick Edmund OTTEWILL

Regimental number2635
Place of birthDulwich Hill, Sydney, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationSalesman
Address9 Church Street, Newtown, New South Wales
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation20
Height5' 7.5"
Weight124 lbs
Next of kinWife, Mrs Maisee Ottewill, 9 Church Street, Newtown, New South Wales
Previous military serviceServed for 2 years in the 33rd Infantry, Citizen Military Forces; 'not discharged'.
Enlistment date20 June 1915
Place of enlistmentLiverpool, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name1st Battalion, 8th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/18/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A54 Runic on 9 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll1st Battalion
FateKilled in Action 2-5 October 1917
Place of death or woundingBelgium
Age at death22
Age at death from cemetery records22
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
30
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Herbert Samuel OTTEWILL and Louise May STALLIBRASS, his wife; husband of Maisie OTTEWILL, 13 Frazer Road, Lewisham, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1739 Pte Herbert Edward OTTEWILL, 18th Bn, returned to Australia, 30 June 1918; Brother-in-law: 6067 Pte Robert PARIS, 4th Bn, killed in action, 5 May 1917.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 18 October 1915; joined 1st Bn, as Private, Gallipoli, 4 November 1915.

Admitted to 87th Field Ambulance, Mudros, 18 December 1915 (influenza); rejoined Bn, Mudros, 24 December 1915.

Disembarked Alexandria, 28 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 22 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 28 March 1916.

Wounded in action, 5 November 1916 (gun shot wound, right leg); admitted to 16th Casualty Clearing Station, 6 November 1916; transferred to Ambulance Train No 3, 7 November 1916, and admitted to 4th General Hospital, Camiers; transferred to England, 12 November 1916, and admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital (bomb wound, right leg); discharged on furlough, 23 April 1917, to report to Training Depot, Perham Downs, 8 May 1917.

Found guilty, Perham Downs, 11 May 1917, of being absent without leave from 3.30 pm, 8 May, till 7 pm, 10 May 1917: awarded 5 days' confined to camp, and forfeited 3 days' pay under Royal Warrant.

Transferred to 61st Bn, Wareham, 25 May 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France from Training Bn, Perham Downs, 1 September 1917; rejoined 1st Bn, in the field, 11 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 2-5 October 1917.

SourcesNAA: B2455, OTTEWILL Frederick Edmund