Regimental number | 2627 |
Place of birth | Openshaw, Manchester, England |
School | James Street State School, Perth, Western Australia |
Age on arrival in Australia | 12 |
Religion | Methodist |
Occupation | Railway porter |
Address | Gosnells, Western Australia |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 24 |
Height | 5' 2" |
Weight | 118 lbs |
Next of kin | Father, William Seddon, Gosnells, Western Australia |
Previous military service | Nil |
Enlistment date | |
Rank on enlistment | Private |
Unit name | 43rd Battalion, 5th Reinforcement |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/60/2 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 43rd Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Zonnebeke, Belgium |
Age at death | 24.11 |
Age at death from cemetery records | 25 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The 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 | 137 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: William and Elizabeth SEDDON, 'Zonnebeke', Gosnells, Western Australia. Native of Higher Openshaw, Manchester, England |
Family/military connections | Nil |
Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked from Fremantle, 9 November 1916; disembarked Devonport, England, 10 January 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 5 February 1917; taken on strength, 43rd Bn, 1 May 1917. Killed in action, Belgium, 4 October 1917. Buried 900 yards ENE of Zonnebeke. Captain J.H. HOOGE, 1st Machine Gun Bn, wrote to CO, 43rd Bn, 10 April 1919: 'On the 6th April I was at Zonnebeke and found the enclosed Identification Disk of No. 2627 H. Seddon of the 43rd A.I. There were a few human remains and old clothing on the spot so I presumed this soldier was killed in action there and the information may be of interest for records.' Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |