The AIF Project

Frederick COPE

Regimental number1327
Place of birth50 High Street, Great Bedwin, Wiltshire, England
Other NamesFred
SchoolGreat Bedwin National School, Wiltshire, England
Age on arrival in Australia23
ReligionMethodist
OccupationCar (railway) builder
Address...
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation26
Next of kinFather, Ambrose Cope, Holly Farm near Heingerford, Berkshire, England
Previous military serviceServed for 3 years in the 4th Royal Berkshire Regiment (Territorial Force); obtained discharge to emigrate to Western Australia.
Enlistment date30 October 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name11th Battalion, 2nd Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/28/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A50 Itonus on 22 February 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll3rd Machine Gun Battalion
FateKilled in Action 21 September 1917
Place of death or woundingNonne Bosschen, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death29
Age at death from cemetery records29
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 31), 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
177
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Ambrose and Susan COPE, Folly Farm, Shalbourne, Hungerford, Berks, England. Native of Great Bedwin, Berks, England
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Taken on strength, 11th Bn, Gallipoli, 7 May 1915. Wounded in action, 20 July 1915 (shrapnel wound, upper lip); admitted to St George's Hospital, Malta, 25 July 1915; discharged to duty, 3 September 1915. Embarked for Egypt, 8 September 1915; taken on strength, Overseas Base,17 September 1915. Embarked fro Gallipoli, 2 October 1915; proceeded to Gallipoli from Mudros, 15 October 1915. Disembarked Alexandria, 7 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation). Transferred to 3rd Machine gun Company, 13 March 1916.

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

Wounded in action, 24 July 1916 (gun shot wound, wrist); admitted to 13th General Hospital, Boulogne, 26 July 1916; transferred to No. 1 Convalescent Depot, 28 July 1916; rejoined unit, 11 September 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal, 1 January 1917.

Wounded in action, 7 May 1917 (shrapnel wound, left hand); rejoined unit from 5th Divisional Rest Station, 12 June 1917. To Brigade School of Instruction, 11 August 1917; rejoined unit, 10 September 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 21 September 1917.

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

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