CHALMERS, David Alexander
| Service Number: | 2598 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 21 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 7th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Mysia, Victoria, Australia, 21 April 1891 |
| Home Town: | Mysia, Loddon, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Mysia State School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in action, France, 20 August 1916, aged 25 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France. |
| Memorials: | Mysia State School No 1899 Honor Roll , Mysia War Memorial School |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2598, 21st Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct 1915: | Involvement Private, 2598, 21st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: RMS Moldavia embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 5 Oct 1915: | Embarked Private, 2598, 21st Infantry Battalion, RMS Moldavia, Melbourne | |
| 24 Feb 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 7th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour David Alexander Chalmers's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
David Chalmers was one of three sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Chalmers, of Mysia, Victoria, who enlisted in the AIF during the Great War. Two of them won Military Medals for bravery in the field, and two of them lay unburied in the fields of France and Flanders.
They were born and raised at Mysia, near Boort, in Victoria. A farming locality really, it still only had a population of 26 in the 2021 census.
David’s younger brother, 1815 Pte. Peter Chalmers M.M. 38th Battalion AIF, was killed in action 13 October 1917, aged 24. Another brother, 1816 Pte. Thomas Main Chalmers M.M. 38th Battalion AIF, was returned to Australia on account of the death of his two brothers, at his own request, on the authority of the GOC AIF, General Birdwood.
David was working on the family farm when he enlisted and was reported to be a very good footballer, solidly built at five feet ten inches and weighing over twelve stone.
David joined the 7th Battalion in Egypt in early 1916 and died during the many hard-fought battles the AIF endured in the effort to capture Mouquet Farm. He was reported by a witness to have been killed by a high explosive shell.
His remains were never found.
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