The AIF Project

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.

Recommended for commission, Duntroon Officers' Training School, 15 January 1917.

War service: Western Front

Embarked Melbourne, 19 February 1917; disembarked Devonport, England, 25 April 1917; marched in to 2nd Training Bn, Durrington, 26 April 1917, and reverted to the ranks.

Proceeded overseas to France, 2 July 1917; taken on strength, 7th Bn, in the field, 20 July 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917.

Handwritten notation on file: 'Buried'.

Note, Red Cross File No 3041013C: 'No trace Germany. Cert. by Captain Mills. 10.10.19.'

Statement, 756A Pte D. THOMPSON, B Company, 7th Bn (patient, Richmond Military Hospital, England), 12 January 1918: 'Young [sic] was shot through the head and instantly killed abt 10 yds. from me by a machine gun bullet on Sept. 20th during an attack on Polygon Wood.'

Second statement, 2921 Pte T. MAHER, 7th Bn (patient, No 7 Canadian General Hospital, Etaples), 14 January 1918: 'At Polygon Wood just before the attack I was near Yung in a shell hole and saw him sniped through the forehead. He died immediately. He was buried in a shell hole near with several others. A cross was erected with all the names on which I saw. Yung, I think, was a school teacher, came over as a Sgt. He was about 23, 5 ft 8, well made, fair.'

Third statement, 192 Pte A. RAVEN, 7th Bn (patient, Havre Hospital), 28 January 1918: 'We were making an attack at Ypres on the 20th Septr and soon after we had reached our 2nd objective, Yung, who was alongside of me was sniped clean through the head. We carried our objective and the Pioneers buried him the following morning.'

Fourth statement, 7299 Pte G.J. PRIOR, formely 7th Bn, then on staff, 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, England, 9 March 1918: 'Ypres, last battle Passchendaele ridge. Shot in the head by a sniper out in the open. L/Cpl. C.N.S. Williams was with him at the time and he told me a few minutes after.'

Fifth statement, 5790 Pte R.T. ROLLS, 7th Bn, 28 June 1918: 'I knew Casualty. He was a short man, about 5 ft. 6 ins, medium built, medium complexion, about 27 years of age, known as "George". Casualty was advancing at Passchendaele ridge. I was in the same advance. I did not see Casualty killed but I saw his body the next day. He was lying out in the open and he was quite dead. He was buried on the 21st September just near where he was lying and I was in the party that was detailled [sic] for the burial.'