Abraham SILVERMAN

Regimental number2815
Place of birthRadum, Warsaw, Poland
Age on arrival in Australia21
ReligionJewish
OccupationTailor
AddressMelford Street, Hurlstone Park, New South Wales
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation23
Height5' 3"
Weight112 lbs
Next of kinWife, Mrs L Silverman, 'Stockton', Clissold Parade, Campsie, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date18 August 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name20th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 2 November 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll20th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 9 October 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death24
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
92
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Taken on strength, 20th Bn, 5 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 25 March 1916.

Wounded in action,1 August 1916 (shell wound, left leg); admitted to No. 2 Australian General Hospital, Wimereux, 2 August 1916; transferred to England, 3 August 1916, and admitted to County of London Hospital, Epsom (wound: severe). Taken on strength, No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 18 October 1916; granted furlough, 19 October 1916; reported back from furlough, 2 November 1916.

Found guilty, 3 November 1916, from 3 pm-11 pm, 2 November 1916: admonished and forfeited 1 day's pay. Marched in to 5th Training Bn, Rollestone, 8 November 1916. Found guilty, 13 December 1916, (1) of being absent without leave from 1230 7/12/16 till apprehended at 2130 8/12/16; (2) resisting arrest: awarded 15 days' detention and forfeiture of a total of 21 days' pay.

Attached to 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 12 March 1917; marched out to No. 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, 12 May 1917. Found guilty, 18 May 1917, of being absent from Tattoo roll call, 16 May 1917, until reveille, 17 May 1917: awarded 4 days' confined to barracks; forfeited 1 day's pay. Marched in to No. 4 Command Depot, Wareham, 17 June 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 23 July 1917; rejoined 20th Bn, 9 August 1917. Admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, 22 August 1917 (defective vision); returned to duty, 24 August 1917. Found guilty, 7 September 1917, of, while on active service, being absent without leave from 9 am 2/9/17 till 1.30 pm 7/9/17: awarded 28 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of a total of 33 days' pay.

Reported missing in action, 9 October 1917; Court of Enquiry, 13 October 1917, determined fate to be 'killed in action'.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal