Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John George Klumpp #6557 26th Battalion

John Klumpp was 30 years old when he enlisted in December 1916. As a boy he had attended Coorparoo State School from 1891 and at around the age of 15 had begun work as a clerk for E. Rich and Company. He gave his address as Toohey Street Woolloongabba where he lived with his mother, Catherine Arnold who had presumably remarried after the death of John’s father.

John was drafted into the 21st reinforcements for the 26th Battalion. This draft was to be the last group of reinforcements for the battalion. He departed Sydney on 7th February 1917 on the “Warilda” and after stopping in Devonport to pick up a contingent of Tasmanian reinforcements arrived in England on 11th April 1917. During his training in England, John completed a “last will and testament” which would bequeath his deferred pay to his mother in case of his death.

The reinforcements were dispatched to France and then Belgium where John joined his unit outside Ypres on 18th August 1917. At this time, the 26th Battalion as part of the 2nd Division was engaged in a series of actions pressing westward from Ypres along the Menin Road towards Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke and ultimately Passchendaele. In an action on the Broodseinde Ridge on 5th October 1917, John Klumpp was reported Missing: Presumed Killed.
The circumstances surrounding John’s death were to cause his mother a great deal of anguish in the months to come. A Church of England Chaplain had apparently written to her advising that a Private McAuly of the same battalion had reported that he had been with John when he was hit in the chest by a shell. McAuly apparently buried John Klumpp, without a grave marker, and wrote a small note to this effect in John’s paybook, but did not apparently report the burial. This is borne out by a subsequent investigation by the Red Cross for a Wounded and Missing Report.

John’s mother was concerned that her son was listed as missing for so long and his apparent burial had not been reported. She was also anxious to receive any of his personal belongings that were available. The file does not indicate if she ever received any artefacts and in any event John’s paybook was army property to which she was not entitled. Eventually Catherine did receive his deferred pay and was granted a pension of one pound per fortnight. His medals were sent to her in 1922.

The story of John Klumpp illustrates how cruel the experience of the War could be. Perhaps his mother would be consoled to learn that John’s name was placed on the memorial tablets of the Menin Gate, Ypres where every night there is the playing of the last post and reciting of the ode to honour the 55,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who perished in Flanders but who have no known grave.