Regimental number | 61 |
Place of birth | Raluana, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago |
School | Elizabeth Street Practising School, Hobart, Tasmania |
Other training | University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania |
Age on arrival in Australia | 3.10 |
Religion | Methodist |
Occupation | School teacher |
Address | Eaglehawk, Victoria |
Marital status | Single |
Age at embarkation | 21 |
Height | 5' 10.5" |
Weight | 158 lbs |
Next of kin | Father, Rev W Chambers, Methodist Parsonage, Eaglehawk, Victoria |
Previous military service | Served in the Military and Naval Cadets (5 years); and in the Citizen Military Forces. |
Enlistment date | |
Rank on enlistment | Sergeant |
Unit name | 12th Battalion, A Company |
AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/29/1 |
Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Hobart, Tasmania, on board Transport A2 Geelong on |
Rank from Nominal Roll | Sergeant |
Unit from Nominal Roll | 12th Battalion |
Fate | Killed in Action |
Place of death or wounding | Ypres, Belgium |
Age at death | 23.10 |
Place of burial | No known grave |
Commemoration details | The 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 | 65 |
Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Mr W.J. and Mrs L.E. CHAMBERS, Rabaul, New Guinea. Native of Raluana, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago |
Family/military connections | Brother: 1877 Pte John Arthur CHAMBERS, 12th Bn, returned to Australia, 1 July 1916. |
Other details |
War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 2 March 1915. Wounded in action, 25-28 April 1915 (bullet wound, arm); admitted to Tigne Hospital, Malta, 4 May 1915; transferred to Egypt, 12 July 1915; disembarked Alexandria, 16 July 1915; embarked to rejoin unit at Gallipoli, 31 August 1915; rejoined unit, 9 September 1915. Admitted to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 25 October 1915 (dysentery), and transferred to hospital ship; disembarked Alexandria, 29 October 1915. Admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital, Ghezireh, 29 October 1915; transferred to Mena House, 5 December 1915; to Helouan Convalescent Hospital, 8 December 1915; to Overseas Base, Ghiza, 31 December 1915. Attached to 3rd AGH, Abbassia, for guard duty, 5 January 1916; retained by 14th AGH for guard duty, 23 September 1916; detached to Base Details, 2 November 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 8 November 1916; taken on strength, 12th Bn, 5 December 1916. On command, Divisional School Cadet Course, 1 February 1917. Admitted to 11th Field Ambulance, 23 April 1917; transferred to Tidworth Military Hospital, 23 April 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 9 October 1917; rejoined 12th Bn, Belgium, 15 October 1917. Killed in action, 3 November 1917. Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal |