Oscar Vincent VIGAR Update Details

VIGAR, Oscar Vincent

Service Numbers: 2821, 2821B
Enlisted: 2 August 1915, Keswick, South Australia
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 10th Infantry Battalion
Born: Morgan, South Australia, 20 April 1894
Home Town: Cleve, Cleve, South Australia
Schooling: Morgan English State School, South Australia
Occupation: Clerk
Died: During A Raid On Celtic Wood, Celtic Wood, Belgium, 9 October 1917, aged 23 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Memorials: Adelaide National War Memorial, Arno Bay WW1 Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Cleve WW1 Honor Roll, Cleve War Memorial, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient), Parkside Epworth Uniting Church Honour Roll, Unley Arch of Remembrance, Unley Town Hall WW1 Honour Board
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

2 Aug 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2821, 27th Infantry Battalion, Keswick, South Australia
27 Oct 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Corporal, 2821, 27th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: ''
27 Oct 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Corporal, 2821, 27th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Adelaide
28 Feb 1916: Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 10th Infantry Battalion
9 Oct 1917: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2821B, 10th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2821B awm_unit: 10 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1917-10-09
Date unknown: Involvement 2821, 10th Infantry Battalion

Family Notices

The Advertiser Friday 16 November 1917 page 8

Corporal OSCAR VIGAR, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Vigar, of Boothby, has been missing since October 8, 1917. Corporal Vigar sailed on, October 27, 1915, with a reinforcement of the 27th Battalion, and after reaching Egypt was transferred to the 10th Battalion. A younger brother, Private Norman Vigar, also of the 10th Battalion, made the supreme sacrifice on September 21,1917.

The Advertiser Friday 28 December 1917 page 5

Corporal OSCAR VIGAR, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Vigar, of Boothby, who was reported missing, was killed on October 8. He had been on active service for two years with the 10thBattalion. Prior to enlistment he was employed as a clerk by Messrs. Bickford & Sons. A younger brother, Gunner H. J. Vigar, also of the 10th, made the supreme sacrifice on September 25.

Read more...
Showing 1 of 1 story

Biography contributed by Robert Kearney

Raid on Celtic Wood 

 

2821b Private Oscar Vincent Vigar a clerk from Boothby, South Australia was in the field the field with D Company on the day of the raid. The Field Return 13 October recorded him as missing on 8 October but then ‘Missing now Killed in Action 9/10/17’ in the corrigenda of the Field Return for 3 November 1917.

Credible witness statements in his Red Cross file. Private Seebohm. -  ‘On the 9th October we were holding the line at Celtic Wood, Ypres sector. Vigar went out on a raid in the morning. On his way back I saw him drop, not far from where we were, - that night two fellows went out to fetch him in – I saw him brought in. He was dead. He had been hit in the head by a bullet. We were relieved that night; his body was left there…’

Corporal Easther. -  ‘This man was killed on the morning of the 8th October in front of Celtic Wood I buried him the same night just behind our lines in the Field and erected a cross from a bomb-box, and put his name on it in indelible pencil. Personal property and identity discs were given to O/C D Coy. There is no doubt about his identity as I took his identity disc myself and saw his name.

Private Pearce. -  ‘...at daybreak I saw Vigar go out with others on a raid. …when they were coming back, I saw him struggling along badly wounded. He got to within 10 yards of our trench, and could get no farther. Corpl. Easther of the 10th Batt., went out to fetch him in; he got him into his arms, but Vigar was hit, and killed…the Corpl., brought in his paybook’.  

Read more...

Biography

Son of William VIGAR and Elizabeth Daisy nee PLUSH