The AIF Project

Marcus Dill REID

Regimental number4523
Place of birthCroydon, New South Wales
Other NamesMarcus Hill
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationClerk
AddressEast Hills, via Bankstown, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinFather, J Reid, East Hills, via Bankstown, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date10 September 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name1st Battalion, 14th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/18/4
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board RMS Osterley on 15 January 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll13th Battalion
FateDied of wounds 13 July 1917
Age at death from cemetery records21
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), 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
70
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Mary REID, Clyde Swilly, East Hills, New South Wales. Native of Sydney, New South Wales. Spelt REID MARCUS DILL
Family/military connectionsBrother: 3654 Pte William Smith REID, 1st Pioneer Bn, returned to Australia, 19 January 1917.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Allotted to and proceeded to join 13th Bn, Zeitoun, 4 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 13 June 1916; disembarked Weymouth, England, 23 June 1916. Admitted to Military Hospital, Fargo, 29 August 1916 (influenza); marched in to 4th Training Bn, 5 October 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 16 January 1917; rejoined 13th Bn, 21 January 1917.

Admitted to 11th Stationary Hospital Rouen, 26 February 1917 (pneumonia); transferred to England, 17 March 1917, and admitted to 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, 18 March 1917. Granted furlough, 11 April 1917, to report to No. 3 Command Depot, Hurdcott, 26 April 1917. Found guilty of being absent without leave from Reveille, 3 January 1917, until apprehended by Military Police at Trowbridge, 10.30 am, 8 January 1917: awarded 168 hours' detention and forfeiture of 13 days' pay.

Proceeded overseas to France, 20 June 1917; rejoined unit, 7 July 1917.

Wounded in action, 13 July 1917; died of wounds, 13 July 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

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