The AIF Project

Arthur Sidney FIELD

Regimental number3234
Place of birthMelbourne, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationWool-presser
AddressArchibald Street, West End, Brisbane, Queensland
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation23
Next of kinMother, Mrs E. Field, Archibald Street, West End, Brisbane, Queensland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date27 April 1915
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name9th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/26/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 21 October 1915
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll49th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 7 June 1917
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
146
Medals

Military Medal

'Counter attacks of the enemy were repelled mainly through the work of my Lewis gunners who kept to their post during the whole time under a heavy bombardment by the enemy and after being repeatedly subjected to bomb attacks by small parties who crept up. Owing to the heavy casualties in my Lewis Gunners it was impossible to relieve them, and these men worked continuously during the whole period.'
Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 62
Date: 19 April 1917

Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Allotted to and joined 49th Bn, Zeitoun, 29 February 1916.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 5 June 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 12 June 1916.

Appointed Lance Corporal, 2 August 1916; promoted Corporal, 15 September 1916.

Awarded the Military Medal.

Found guilty by Field General Court Martial, 23 December 1916, of disobeying a lawful command given by his superior officer: sentenced to be reduced to the ranks.

Killed in action, Belgium, 7 June 1917.

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

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