The AIF Project

Harold Stanley YATES

Regimental number781
Place of birthBallarat, Victoria
SchoolDana Street State School, Ballarat, Victoria
ReligionMethodist
OccupationStore hand
Address86 Gatehouse Street, Parkville, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation25
Next of kin..., C H Yates, 86 Gatehouse Street, Parkville, Victoria
Enlistment date20 January 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name21st Battalion, C Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/38/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 10 May 1915
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal Roll21st Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularOne of four brothers who served abroad, one of whom was also killed whilst a fifth enlisted but did not embark from Australia.
FateKilled in Action 31 July 1916
Place of death or woundingPozi?res, France
Age at death26
Age at death from cemetery records27
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
95
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Charles Henry Treleaven and Louisa YATES
Family/military connectionsBrothers: Four, one of whom, No.290 2nd Lieutenant Arthur William Yates, A Company 22nd Infantry Battalion, was killed in action at Pozi?res, France on 8 August 1916.

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