| Regimental number | 4492 |
| Place of birth | Sprent, Tasmania |
| School | Ulverstone State School, Tasmania |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Labourer |
| Address | Ulverstone, Tasmania |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 18 |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs H Elson, Ulverstone, Tasmania |
| Previous military service | Served in the Senior Cadets for 4 months; thereafter temporarily exempt. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 12th Battalion, 14th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/29/4 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A69 Warilda on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Lance Corporal |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 52nd Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | France |
| Age at death | 20 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The 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 | 155 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Jacob and Hannah ELSON, Ulverstone, Tasmania |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Disembarked Suez, 8 March 1916. Taken on strength, 52nd Bn, Serapeum, 19 April 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916. Wounded in action, France, 3 September 1916; admitted to 4th General Hospital, Camiers, 5 September 1916 (gun shot wound, neck and arm); listed as dangerously ill, 10 September 1916. Transferred to England, 21 September 1916, and admitted to County London War Hospital, Epsom, 22 September 1916. Discharged to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 31 October 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 12 January 1917; rejoined unit, 17 January 1917. Appointed Lance Corporal, 22 September 1917. Killed in action, 19 October 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
