The AIF Project

Wesley Greta CALLENDER

Regimental number404
Place of birthDudley, New South Wales
SchoolPublic School, Dudley, New South Wales
ReligionMethodist
OccupationMiner
AddressDudley, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation22
Height5' 5"
Weight133 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Elizabeth Callender, Dudley, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date20 January 1916
Place of enlistmentNewcastle, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name35th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/52/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 1 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll35th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death19
Age at death from cemetery records23
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), 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
125
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: George and Elizabeth CALLENDER, Dudley, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrother: 4387 Lance Corporal John CALLENDER, 5th Divisional Signal Company, returned to Australia, 3 July 1919.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 1 May 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 9 July 1916.

Found guilty, 2 October 1916, of being absent without leave from 10 pm, 23 September, to 6 am, 2 October 1916: awarded 21 days' Field Punishment No 2, and forfeited a total of 31 days' pay.

Proceeded overseas to France, 21 November 1916.

Wounded in action, 8 June 1917 (gun shot back); admitted same day to 9th Australian Field Ambulance, and thence to Divisional Rest Station; rejoined 35th Bn, in the field, 14 June 1917.

Admitted to 9th Australian Field Ambulance, 1 July 1917; transferred to Divisional Rest Station, 4 July 1917, and thence to 9th Australian Field Ambulance (influenza); transferred to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 12 July 1917, and thence by Ambulance Train to 55th General Hospital, Boulogne, 13 July 1917; discharged to No 1 Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 2 August 1917; to No 3 Rest Camp, 4 August 1917; to 3rd Australian Division Base Depot, Rouelles, 14 August 1917; rejoined Bn, in the field, 26 August 1917.

Reported missing in action, 12 October 1917.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 15 May 1918, pronounced fate as 'killed in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917.'

Statement, 572 Pte W. TURNER, 35th Bn, 1 May 1918: 'The last time I saw No. 404, Private Callender W.G. of 35th Battalion was at the camp at right of Menin Road, Ypres, France (sic). I heard from Sgt John Clarke of 35th Battalion that he saw shell fall near to No. 404 Private Callender W.G. and that his body was buried by the explosion on 12th October 1917.'

Statement, Red Cross File No 670811, 572 Pte W. TURNER, B Company, 35th Bn (patient, No 34 Ambulance Train), 10 April 1918: 'They [CALLENDER and 1076 H.J. BRUNKER] were in B. Coy ... They were last seen in a shell hole with several men in No Man's Land at Passchendaele during the daytime when a shell dropped amongst them and nothing more was ever seen of them. They could not have been taken P/W as we advanced beyond this place.'

Second statement, 2596 Pte R. GILBEY, B Company, 35th Bn, 13 May 1918: 'I saw him killed outright by M.G. Fire at Passchendaele being hit in the right breast when going over the top at 6. a.m. I think he was buried on the spot some days later.'

Note on file: 'No trace Germany[.] Cert. by Capt. Mills. 10.10.19.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, CALLENDER Wesley Greta
Red Cross File No 670811

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