| Regimental number | 25655 |
| Place of birth | Gunnedah, New South Wales |
| School | St Xavier's Convent School; Public School, Gunnedah, New South Wales |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | Bricklayer |
| Address | Gunnedah, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 19 |
| Height | 5' 7.75" |
| Weight | 119 lbs |
| Next of kin | Father, F Babbage, Gunnedah, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Served in the 13th Infantry, Citizen Military Forces, under the Universal Training Scheme: still serving at time of AIF enlistment. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Place of enlistment | Narrabri, New South Wales |
| Rank on enlistment | Driver |
| Unit name | Divisional Ammunition Column 5, Reinforcement 4 |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 25/112/3 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A67 Orsova on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Driver |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 55th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 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 | 160 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Commemorated in St Joseph's Catholic Church (Station of the Cross 6: presented by F BABBAGE in memory), Gunnedah, New South Wales. Parents: Frederick and Eva Maud BABBAGE, Chandos Street, Gunnedah, New South Wales |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Sydney, 29 July 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 14 September 1916. Found guilty, Command Depot, Hurdcott, 18 November 1916, of being absent without leave from 9.30 am, 12 November, till 11.30 am, 17 November 1916: awarded 120 hours’ detention, and forfeited 11 days’ pay. Proceeded overseas to France, 14 December 1916; taken on strength, 55th Bn, in the field, 24 December 1916. Admitted to 5th Divisional Rest Station, 12 February 1917 (nervous debility and scabies); transferred to 1st Anzac Rest Station, 18 February 1917; discharged to duty, 15 March 1917; rejoined unit, 16 March 1917. Killed in action, 26 September 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
