Cecil James HANKS

Cecil James HANKS Update Details

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HANKS, Cecil James

Service Number:	3058
Enlisted:	27 September 1916
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	34th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Kewell, Victoria, Australia, 1897
Home Town:	Boggabri, Narrabri, New South Wales
Schooling:	Boggabri Public School, Victoria, Australia
Occupation:	Farmer
Died:	Killed in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Boggabri War Memorial, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

World War 1 Service

27 Sep 1916:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3058, 34th Infantry Battalion
24 Jan 1917:	Involvement Private, 3058, 34th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '17' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Anchises embarkation_ship_number: A68 public_note: ''
24 Jan 1917:	Embarked Private, 3058, 34th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Anchises, Sydney

Help us honour Cecil James Hanks's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks

Cecil James Hanks was the son of Samuel and Agnes Hanks of Boggabri, New South Wales.

His older brother, 445 Pte. John Thomas Hanks 36th Battalion AIF, had been killed in action at Messines, Belgium, on 7 June 1917, aged 22.

Cecil enlisted at 19 years of age and joined the 34th Battalion in Belgium on 30 July 1917. He was killed in action ten weeks later near Passchendaele.

In a communication with Base Records, Cecils’ father simply stating the information he had received, “I got a wire on Oct.12th to say my son was wounded. Two months after I got another wire to say that he was missing, six months after I got a wire to say that he was wounded, missing and killed on Oct.12th at Pashendale.

And I could not find any more about him. Yours faithfully, S. Hanks.”

The most reliable witness to his death in his Red Cross wounded and missing file said he was only 20 yards away when Cecil was hit all over by a high explosive shell and killed instantly at the start of the advance.

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