The AIF Project

William Charles Frederick EYLES

Regimental number3304
Place of birthAdelaide, South Australia
ReligionMethodist
OccupationLabourer
Address3 Oakley Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation24
Height5' 8.5"
Weight142 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs A Eyles, 3 Oakley Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date26 July 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll16 June 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name10th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/27/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 27 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollLance Corporal
Unit from Nominal Roll50th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 11 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records27
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe 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
150
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Ellen EYLES, 88 Leicester Street, Parkside, South Australia. Native of Adelaide
Family/military connectionsBrother: 2328 Pte Herbert John Percival EYLES, 30th Bn, killed in action, 25 November 1916.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Admitted to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Cairo, 20 February 1916 (influenza); transferred to duty, 6 March 1916; taken on strength, 10th Bn, Serapeum, 17 March 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916. Admitted to New Zealand Stationary Hospital, Amiens, 19 July 1916 (adenitis); transferred to 18th General Hospital, Camiers, 21 July 1916. Transferred to England, 6 August 1916, and admitted to North West Hospital, Newcastle, 7 August 1916 (trench fever); transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 13 October 1916; granted furlough, 20 October 1916, to report to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 4 November 1916. Found guilty of being absent without leave, 3.30 pm, 4 November, to 4 pm, 7 November 1916: awarded 7 days' confinment to camp and forfeiture of 4 days' pay. Proceeded overseas to France, 12 December 1916; rejoined unit, 19 February 1917.

Admitted to 13th Australian Field Ambulance, 24 March 1917 (frost bite); transferred to 12th General Hospital, Rouen, 26 March 1917. Transferred to hospital, England, 22 May 1917; transferred to Royal Victoria Hospital, 31 March 1917; granted furlough, 5 May 1917, to report to No. 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 22 May 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 26 July 1917. Found guilty of being absent without leave, midnight, 5 July, to 6 pm, 9 July: awarded 7 days' Field Punishment No. 2 and forfeiture of 12 days' pay. Rejoined unit, Belgium, 15 August 1917.

Killed in action, Belgium, 11 October 1917.

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

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