James CARLOS

Regimental number3753
Place of birthClare, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Ireland
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationLabourer
AddressKalgoorlie, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation30
Height5' 11"
Weight182 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs S Carlos, Landsborough Street, Roscommon, Ireland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date15 September 1915
Place of enlistmentBlackboy Hill, Western Australia
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name11th Battalion, 12th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/28/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board RMS Mongolia on 22 November 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll11th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 1 November 1917
Place of death or woundingNot known
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
61
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Martin and Cecilia CARLOS, Carnabasson, Four Mile Road, Roscommon, Ireland
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Joined 11th Bn, Habieta, 2 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 29 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 5 April 1916.

Wounded in action, 22 July 1916 (shrapnel wound, left hand), and admitted to 2nd Australian Field Ambulance; transferred to 1st Australian General Hospital, Rouen, 23 July 1916; discharged to duty, 23 July 1916; rejoined unit, 16 September 1916.

Wounded in action (2nd occasion), 9 November 1916 (shrapnel wound, right knee),and admitted to 5th Australian Field Ambulance, thence to 36th Casualty Clearing Station; transferred to 1st Australian General Hospital, Etretat, 11 November 1916; to 4th Convalescent Depot, Havre, 16 November 1916; discharged to duty, 21 November 1916; proceeded from 1st Australian Division Base Depot, Etaples, to rejoin unit, 30 December 1916; attached to 1st Anzac Headquarters, 1 January 1917; rejoined Bn , 11 August 1917.

On furlough to United Kingdom, 4-14 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 1 November 1917.

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