James Martin KELEHER

KELEHER, James Martin

Service Number: 2696
Enlisted: 11 August 1915, Enlisted at Warwick Farm.
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 3rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Bowral, New South Wales, Australia, May 1897
Home Town: Bowral, Wingecarribee, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Railway Worker
Died: Killed in Action, France, 25 July 1916
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France)
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

11 Aug 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2696, 18th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Warwick Farm.
2 Nov 1915: Involvement Private, 2696, 18th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
2 Nov 1915: Embarked Private, 2696, 18th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
25 Jul 1916: Involvement Private, 2696, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2696 awm_unit: 3 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-07-25

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

Biography contributed by John Oakes

James Martin KELEHER (Service Number 2696) was born in Bowral about May 1897. He enlisted at Warwick Farm on 11th August 1915 citing military experience in the Senior Cadets and giving his mother Mary Keleher as his next of kin. He was allotted to the 6th Reinforcements to the 18th Battalion.

He embarked HMAT ‘Euripides’ at Sydney on 2nd November 1915and sailed to Egypt.

He was admitted to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo on 23rd December 1915 with Influenza. He was later taken on strength of the 18th Battalion but transferred to the 3rd Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir on 14th February.

On 22nd March 1916 Keleher embarked on HMT ‘Grampian’ at Alexandria for passage to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in France, passing through Marseilles on 28th March.

He was killed in action on 25th July 1916 and was buried in the vicinity of Pozières. The location of his grave has been lost. He is remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.

- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.

Read more...