The AIF Project

Francis John Charles Jarred SHERAN

Regimental number2440
Place of birthMaytown, Queensland
SchoolRavenswood State School, Victoria
Other trainingGatton Agricultural College, Qld
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationRailway employee
Address186 Walker Street, North Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Height5' 10.75"
Weight150 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs A Case, Macrossan Street, Ravenswood, Queensland
Enlistment date7 June 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll30 May 1915
Place of enlistmentLiverpool, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/21/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A67 Orsova on 14 July 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll4th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 3 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death25
Age at death from cemetery records25
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
42
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Mother: Ann CASE (formerly SHERRAN); Father: the late Agmond James SHERRAN. Native of Maytown, Queensland
Family/military connectionsBrother: 3643 Pte Ernest Robert Dudley SHEAREN, 1st Divisional Train, returned to Australia, 6 September 1919; Cousins (2nd): 1672 Pte Alan Somerset FULLER, killed in action, 19 August 1916; 3674 Pte Trevor Stuart RIXON, 30th Bn, died of wounds, 24 October 1917.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 18 October 1915. Disembarked Alexandria from Mudros, 29 December 1915 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Found guilty, 3 February 1916, of being absent without leave from Camp, 0900, 1 February, to 1400, 3 February 1916: awarded 14 days' Field Punishment No 2 and forfeiture of 3 days' pay; forfeited a total of 17 days' pay.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 23 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 30 March 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal,14 April 1916.

Wounded in action, France, 17 May 1916 (gun shot wound, left knee), and admitted to 1st Australian Field Ambulance; transferred to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 18 May 1916; by Ambulance Train No 7 to Australian Hospital, Wimereux, 20 May 1916; to England, 29 May 1916, and admitted to 3rd London General Hospital; to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, 5 June 1916; to Woodcote Park Hospital, Epsom, 4 July 1916; to Military Convalescent Hospital, 4 July 1916; discharged on furlough, 14 August 1916. Found guilty, 5 September 1916, of being absent without leave from 3 pm, 30 August, to noon, 31 August 1916: admonished and forfeited 2 days' pay. Proceeded overseas to France, 16 September 1916; rejoined Bn, 2 October 1916.

Promoted Temporary Corporal, 26 October 1916.

Admitted to 10th General Hospital, Rouen, 21 January 1917 (ruptured muscle, thigh; soldier stated injury did not occur while in the performance of military duty); transferred to 45th Casualty Clearing Station, 2 February 1917; to 10th General Hospital, 5 February 1917; to England, 19 March 1917, and admitted to Southwark Military hospital, 20 March 1917; discharged on furlough, 19 April 1917, to report to No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 4 May 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 20 August 1917; rejoined Bn, 31 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 4 October 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Miscellaneous detailsFamily name variously spelled as SHEARAN, SHEAREN, SHERAN

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