The AIF Project

John Joseph CARMODY

Regimental number566
Place of birthArrilalah, via Longreach, Queensland
SchoolState School, Brisbane, Queensland
ReligionRoman Catholic
OccupationRailway guard
AddressRedbank, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Next of kinMichael Joseph Carmody, Redbank, Queensland
Previous military serviceServed for 2 years in the Australian Garrison Artillery, Townsville Area (left district).
Enlistment date1 September 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name9th Battalion, E Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/26/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board Transport A5 S.S. Omrah on 24 September 1914
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
Place of death or woundingMessines, Belgium
Age at death27
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 29), 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
147
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Michael and Ellen CARMODY, Police Office, Townsville, Queensland. Native of Arrilalah, Queensland
Family/military connectionsBrother: 6310 Pte Thomas Joseph CARMODY, 26th Bn, returned to Australia, 18 July 1919.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Wounded in action, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915 (knees); transferred to Malta, 4 May 1915; to Mudros, 12 October 1915; rejoined unit at Gallipoli, 21 October 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 4 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Promoted Corporal, 1 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916.

Wounded in action, 14 June 1916 (gun shot wound, abdomen); rejoined unit, 24 September 1916.

Wounded in action, 27 November 1916 (gun shot wound, right leg); admitted to 11th Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 29 November 1916; discharged to Base, 3 December 1916; rejoined unit, 18 January 1917. On leave to England, 21 January 1917; rejoined unit, admitted to 2nd General Hospital, Havre, while on leave, 22 January 1917 (mumps); rejoined unit, 9 April 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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