The AIF Project

Henry SEDDON

Regimental number2627
Place of birthOpenshaw, Manchester, England
SchoolJames Street State School, Perth, Western Australia
Age on arrival in Australia12
ReligionMethodist
OccupationRailway porter
AddressGosnells, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height5' 2"
Weight118 lbs
Next of kinFather, William Seddon, Gosnells, Western Australia
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date21 August 1916
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name43rd Battalion, 5th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/60/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A8 Argyllshire on 9 November 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll43rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Place of death or woundingZonnebeke, Belgium
Age at death24.11
Age at death from cemetery records25
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
137
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Elizabeth SEDDON, 'Zonnebeke', Gosnells, Western Australia. Native of Higher Openshaw, Manchester, England
Family/military connectionsNil
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

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