The AIF Project

Alfred Thomas ELLIS

Regimental number1221
Place of birthKempton, Tasmania
SchoolKing's Grammar School, Hobart, Tasmania
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarmer
AddressKempton, Tasmania
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation25
Height5' 7"
Weight133 lbs
Next of kinFather, W H Ellis, Kempton, Tasmania
Previous military serviceServed in the King's Grammar School Cadets; was a member of the Kempton Rifle Club.
Enlistment date13 May 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll13 May 1915
Rank on enlistmentCorporal
Unit name26th Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/43/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on 29 June 1915
Rank from Nominal Roll2nd Lieutenant
Unit from Nominal Roll26th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 21 September 1917
Place of death or woundingPolygon Wood, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death36
Age at death from cemetery records26
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), 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
107
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William Henry and Emily ELLIS. Native of Kempton, Tasmania
Other details

War service: embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 4 September 1915. Promoted Temporary Sergeant, 12 December 1915; Sergeant, 6 January 1916 (Mudros Island). Disembarked Alexandria, 9 January 1916 (general Gallipoli evacuation).

Admitted to 7th Field Ambulance, Ismailia, 5 February 1916 (influenza); transferred to 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 6 February 1916 (tonsilitis); discharged to duty, 16 February 1916; rejoined Bn, 17 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 15 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 21 March 1916. Promoted Temporary Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 11 September 1916; CQMS, 8 December 1916.

Detached from 26th Bn and proceeded to join Mo. 4 Officer Cadet Bn, 9 Alfred Street, Oxford, England, 6 February 1917. Appointed 2nd Lt and posted to Infantry Reinforcements, 31 May 1917. Proceeded overseas to France, 21 June 1917; rejoined 26th Bn, 30 June 1917.

To Corps School, 21 July 1917; rejoined Bn, 8 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 21 September 1917.

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

Print format    


© The AIF Project 2024, UNSW Canberra. Not to be reproduced without permission.