BEER, Ernest Wills
| Service Number: | 1913 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 2 March 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 6th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Mackay, Queensland, Australia, 15 March 1898 |
| Home Town: | Yarraville, Maribyrnong, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Butcher |
| Died: | DoW - Lone Pine - GSW both arms, gangrene, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 9 August 1915, aged 17 years |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, Townsville West End Methodist Church Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 2 Mar 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1913, 6th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Apr 1915: | Involvement Private, 1913, 6th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: '' | |
| 17 Apr 1915: | Embarked Private, 1913, 6th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Hororata, Melbourne |
Help us honour Ernest Wills Beer's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Peter Rankin
Ernest was only 17 years 4 months old when he died. His family epitaph reads. THE PATH OF HONOUR, LEADS BUT TO THE GRAVE, FATHER, IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING, LEAVE WE NOW OUR LOVED ONE SLEEPING.
Biography contributed by Evan Evans
From How We Served
The private commemoration for; - 1913 Private Ernest Wills Beer of Mackay, Queensland and Yarraville, Victoria, and who had cited on enlistment for War Service on the 29th of January 1915 that he was employed as a butcher.
Ernest had raised his age to 19 in order to join the 1st AIF, when in fact he was aged 17. Accepted for service, Ernest was assigned to reinforcements for the 6th Battalion and departed Australia bound for Egypt and further training on the 17th of April.
Within months he would be shipped to the trenches of Gallipoli where he was disembarked and formally taken on strength with his Battalion on the 10th of July.
Ernest was present with his Battalion when it was committed to the capture of German Officers Trench on the 7th of August as part of the August offensive against the Turkish positions, which included the Battle of Lone Pine and The Nek.
It was during the 6th Battalion’s failed assault against these enemy’s well-fortified positions at German Officers Trench, that Ernest would sustain serious gunshot wounds to both arms, and he was evacuated for hospitalization.
Placed aboard the Hospital Ship “Delta’, Ernest’s wounds would become infected by gangrene, and on the 9th of August he succumbed to his injuries, and was formally buried at sea.
Following the end of the Great War, Private Ernest Beer’s name would be officially commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsular, Canakkale Province, Turkey, where those Australian’s who have no known place of burial have been formally recorded.
Back home in Australia, the supreme sacrifice made by young Ernest would be privately commemorated at his family’s collective burial site within Fawkner General Cemetery, Victoria.
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