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NEAL, Bertram
Service Number: | 562 |
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Enlisted: | 25 July 1916, Sydney, New South Wales |
Last Rank: | Private |
Last Unit: | 1st Machine Gun Battalion |
Born: | Grays, Essex, England, 1890 |
Home Town: | North Sydney, North Sydney, New South Wales |
Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
Occupation: | Traveller |
Died: | Died of Illness, France, 1 December 1918 |
Cemetery: |
Etaples Military Cemetery Grave Reference:LI. E. 14., Etaples Military Cemetery, Etaples, Nord Pas de Calais, France |
Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
25 Jul 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 562, Sydney, New South Wales | |
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6 Dec 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 562, 5th Machine Gun Company, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Orsova embarkation_ship_number: A67 public_note: '' | |
6 Dec 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 562, 5th Machine Gun Company, HMAT Orsova, Melbourne | |
1 Dec 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 562, 1st Machine Gun Battalion , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 562 awm_unit: 1st Australian Machine Gun Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-12-01 |
Help us honour Bertram Neal's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
Birth registered as Bertie
Births Jun 1890 Neal Bertie Orsett 4a 389
He is remembered as Bert on the grave of his parents, William Henry and Sarah Neal at Grays Old Cemetery, Essex. He had been born in Grays. He was 29 and the son of William Henry and Sarah Neal; husband of Maude Alice Neal, of "Rokeby," Ladbroke Rd., Epsom, Surrey, England. She remarried and became Mrs. Short.
At one point he had been living at 129 Clarence Road, Grays, Essex and was employed as a Steward on the steamship “Otway”
INSCRIPTION on his wargrave
SLEEP ON BELOVED, SLEEP THY DUTY NOBLY DONE REVERED BY HIS LOVING WIFE
Biography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
He is commemorated on the Grays War Memorial which stands at the north end of Grays High Street; the names of the borough’s Great War dead are inscribed on the east and west panels, while the south-facing panel is inscribed with four lines from the poem, "Bivouac of the Dead" written by Danville, Kentucky native, Theodore O'Hara to honour his fellow soldiers from Kentucky who died in the Mexican-American War. The poem increased its popularity after the Civil War, and its verses have been featured on many memorials to fallen soldiers throughout the world,
“On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.”
Other locally born casualties who fell whilst serving with Australian forces in the Great War who are commemorated on the Grays War Memorial are:
Henry C. Aslett
Frank [Francis] Walter Facer
William Mears
Josiah Needham Smith
Albert Stephenson
William George King
It has to be assumed that the following locally born Australian casualties didn’t make it to any of the borough’s war memorials, simply because there were no living relatives still around in the area when the lists were created.
George Seth Clayton
Charles Culley
Jesse Humphrey
John Musgrove
Richard Turnbull
C. Webb