The AIF Project

Robert SLESSAR

Regimental number3821
Place of birthWaaia, Victoria
SchoolState Schools, Victoria
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationEngineer
AddressPakenham East, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation29
Next of kinFather, R Slessar, Pakenham East, Victoria
Enlistment date9 July 1915
Rank on enlistmentSapper
Unit name6th Field Company Engineers, 1st Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number14/25/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on 23 November 1915
Rank from Nominal RollSapper
Unit from Nominal Roll8th Field Company Engineers
FateKilled in Action 27 August 1916
Place of death or woundingPozieres, Somme Sector, France
Age at death30
Age at death from cemetery records30
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
25
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Robert and Mary SLESSAR, Pakenham East, victoria
Family/military connectionsCousin: No.2223 William Cook Slessar, 8th Battalion, who was killed in action in Belgium on 24 June 1916.

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