The AIF Project

William James CLASOHM

Regimental number254
Place of birthBalhannah, South Australia
SchoolBalhannah Public School, South Australia
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationGardener
AddressBalhannah, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinFather, John Clasohm, same address
Previous military serviceServed in the Senior Cadets for 1 year; in the 74th Bn, Citizen Military Forces, for 3.5 years.
Enlistment date10 January 1916
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name43rd Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/60/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A19 Afric on 9 June 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll43rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Place of death or woundingFrance
Age at death22
Age at death from cemetery records22
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
136
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Jane Howard CLASOHM, Balhannah, South Australia
Family/military connectionsBrother: 6789 Pte Stanley Edward CLASOHM, 27th Bn, died of wounds, 12 July 1918.
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked from Adelaide, 9 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 20 July 1916; proceeded to England.

Proceeded overseas to France, 22 September 1916; taken on strength, 16th Bn, 4 October 1916. Transferred to 43rd Bn, 23 November 1916.

Admitted to 9th Field Ambulance, 7 January 1917 (mumps); transferred to 7th General Hospital,St Omer, 8 January 1917; discharged to Base Details, 28 January 1917; rejoined Bn, 29 January 1917.

Found guilty, 23 May 1917, of disobedience of orders in that he did not carry his greatcoat in pack when ordered to do so: awarded 7 days' Field Punishment No. 2.

Wounded in action, 7 June 1917 (gun shot wound, hand); admitted to 8th Stationary Hospital, Wimereux, 8 June 1917; transferred to 1st Convalescent Depot, Boulogne, 25 June 1917; rejoined Bn, 6 July 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 4 October 1917.

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

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