The AIF Project

Leonard James ALLEN

Regimental number1303
Place of birthTownsville, Queensland
SchoolState School, Queensland
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationEngine driver
Addressc/o Jack Allen, Mulgrave Road, Cairns, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height5' 8"
Weight150 lbs
Next of kinBrother, Jack J Allen, Townsville, Mulgrave Road, Cairns, Queensland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date11 December 1914
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll14 February 1914
Place of enlistmentBrisbane, Queensland
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name9th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/26/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 13 February 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll9th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour CircularHe was very fond of shooting. He was the son of an old soldier and a brother of a South African soldier who is now a CPO in the Navy reserves, and myself also a brother a rejected volunteer.
FateKilled in Action 11 October 1917
Place of death or woundingYpres, Belgium
Age at death24
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), 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
54
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John James and Elizabeth ALLEN
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 2 March 1915.

Admitted to 1st Stationary Hospital (measles and rheumatics), Lemnos, 24 April 1915; transferred to Egypt for treatment, 24 April 1915; admitted to Convalescent Hospital, Cairo, 28 May 1915; transferred to Base Details, Zeitoun, 4 June 1915.

Rejoined 9th Bn, Gallipoli, 10 July 1915.

Admitted to 1st Australian Field Ambulance (diarrhoea), 25 August 1915; transferred to Mudros for treatment, 27 August 1915; admitted to St Patrick Hosptial, Malta, 31 August 1915; admitted to St Andrews Hospital, Malta, 4 September 1915; embarked Malta for treatment in England, 2 October 1915; admitted 3rd General Hospital, London, 10 October 1915.

Transferred to 47th Bn, Serapeum, Egypt, 23 April 1916; taken on strength, 47th Bn, Serapeum, 29 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 2 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 9 June 1916.

Wounded in action, France, 3 October 1916; admitted to 13th Australian Field Ambulance (shrapnel wound, right hand), 5 October 1916; admitted to 15th Casualty Clearing Station, 16 October 1916; admitted to 14th General Hospital, 18 October 1916; admitted to 1st Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 20 October 1916; discharged to 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot, Etaples, 27 October 1916.

Rejoined 47th Bn, in the field, 28 November 1916.

Transferred to 9th Bn, 1 December 1916; taken on strength, 9th Bn, in the field, 2 December 1916.

Admitted to 38th Casualty Clearing Station, (pyrexia of unknown origin), France, 5 December 1916; admitted to 12th General Hospital, Rouen, 12 December 1916; embarked Havre for treatment in England (laryngitis), 24 December 1916; admitted 4th General Hospital (venereal disease), London, 11 January 1917; admitted to Cosham Military Hospital, 6 February 1917; admitted to 2nd Auxiliary Hospital, England, 15 February 1917; discharged to furlough, 17 February 1917.

Marched in from furlough, No. 2 Australian Convalescent Camp, 5 March 1917.

Proceeded to France, 9 March 1917; marched in, 1st Australian Divisional Base Depot, Etaples, 10 May 1917.

Admitted to 2nd General Hospital (influenza), Havre, 16 June 1917; transferred to 4th Convalescent Depot, Havre, 25 June 1917; discharged to 1st Australian Divisional Base Depot, Havre, 9 July 1917.

Marched out to rejoin 9th Bn, 28 July 1917; joined 9th Bn, in the field, 5 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 1 October 1917.

Buried at Bellawarde Ridge, map reference J.7.c.6.6.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ALLEN Leonard James

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