Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

"A soldier of Anzac Cove

651 Pte Edgar Mouland of the 12th Battalion, AIF was killed in action on 25th April 1915. This is his story.

Edgar Mouland volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force, joining at Morphettville, Adelaide on the 7th September 1914. He was twenty-seven years and four months old, a motor-driver by trade, who gave his place of birth as Alderbury, near Salisbury, England. His surviving papers at the National Archives of Australia record that he stood five feet, nine and a half inches tall, had a fresh complexion, blue eyes and black hair. His religion is noted as Church of England. Edgar was a single man and noted his next of kin as his mother, Emma Mouland, also of Alderbury.

The England and Wales census returns for 1901 show Edgar living with his parents, three brothers and two sisters at The Green, Alderbury. His father John is noted as a blacksmith and his brother Bertram was working alongside him. By the time the 1911 census was taken, John is still working as a blacksmith but assisted by another son, Wilfred (aged 17) and his thirty-year-old nephew Ralph. Bertram is listed as the head of a separate household in Alderbury and is recorded as the village blacksmith. Edgar does not appear on the 1911 census and it's possible that he had already immigrated to Australia.

Edgar embarked at Melbourne on the 17th September 1914 aboard HMAT Geelong (A2), the former passenger ship having been converted at Melbourne to accommodate 62 officers and 1539 additional personnel.

He was originally reported as missing in action in the Dardanelles between 25th and 28th April 1915. This was later revised by a Board of Inquiry in June 1916 to "killed in action" on the 25th April. The Board noted a report by 718 Sgt L E Ring of C Company, 12th AIF and recorded that "... about 2 miles back from the Beach at Anzac, Mowland [sic] was killed. Informant did not actually see him after death, but says that enquiries were made among the survivors of the Battalion, and it was considered established that Mowland was killed. Informant is certain Mowland is dead." Another witness, 145 Pte W Hase, also recovering in hospital (this time, in Cairo), remembered last seeing Edgar Mouland in the charge at 9am on the 25th. Hase, who was in the same platoon and company as Mouland noted that none of the Company had seen him since.

At some point after the Inquiry reported its findings, Edgar Mouland's body was discovered and he was buried on the Gallipoli peninsula. His body was later exhumed and re-buried in Lone Pine Cemetery, grave reference O.12. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Roll of Honour website, records that he was the son of Emma Mouland and the late John Mouland (his father having died in 1913). Edgar's name also appears on the village war memorial in Alderbury and on panel 66 in the commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial. Wilfred Mouland, Edgar's 17-year-old blacksmith brother on the 1911 census was also killed in action during the First World War." - Anzac Landings in Gallipoli by Paul Nixon (www.findmypast.com.au)