The AIF Project

Arthur ALLISON

Regimental number4429
Place of birthFitzroy, Victoria
SchoolGeorge St State School, Fitzroy, Victoria
ReligionMethodist
OccupationBoot clicker
Address19 Hotham Street, Collingwood, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Height5' 4.75"
Weight140 lbs
Next of kinFather, Mr G T Allison 19 Hotham Street, Collingwood, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 18 months in the Senior Cadets
Enlistment date8 October 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll8 October 1915
Place of enlistmentMelbourne, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name5th Battalion, 14th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/22/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 28 January 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll46th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 11 June 1917
Place of death or woundingBelgium
Age at death21
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 27), 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
141
Family/military connectionsCousin killed at landing Percy Plank.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Disembarked Alexandria, 28 February 1916.

Taken on strength, 46th Bn, Serapeum, 31 March 1916.

Admitted to Dental Corps, Serapeum, 9 April 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, France, 2 June 1916; disembarked at Marseilles, 8 June 1916.

Admitted to 12th Australian Field Ambulance (injury to eyes), in the field, 1 July 1916; rejoined unit, in the field, 4 July 1916.

Wounded in action, in the field, 13 August 1916; admitted to 44th Casualty Clearing Station (gun shot wound, arm and side), in the field, 14 August 1916; admitted to No. 8 Stationary Hospital (gun shot wound scalp, right arm and chest wall), Wimereux, 14 August 1916; admitted to No. 1 Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 28 August 1916; discharged to 4th Australian DIvisional Base Depot, Etaples, 30 August 1916.

Rejoined unit, in the field, 11 September 1916.

Killed in action, Belgium, 11 June 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, ALLISON Arthur

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