Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Memorial details: Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium (Philip's body was never found)

Philip was the second youngest son to Johann and Rose Kluck of Murgon.They had 10 children with three of their sons enlisting for WW1 duties. Philip and his brother Frank would not return. He was the Uncle to a William Valentine Steele who also did not return.

 
#3514 KLUCK Phillip Ted        52nd Battalion
 
Phillip Kluck was born in Lowood to Johann and Rose Kluck. While Phillip (sometimes he spelt his name with only one “l”) and his brothers were young they probably attended the school at Lowood, however by the time that Phillip and his brother Frank enlisted, the family had moved to Murgon.
 
Phillip attended the recruiting depot in Brisbane on 4th January 1917. He gave his age as 19 years and stated his occupation as farmer of Murgon. After a short time in a depot battalion at Enoggera, Phillip was drafted into the 9th reinforcements for the 52nd Battalion. Ten days after enlistment, Phillip was granted home leave to go back to Murgon as his family had just received the news that Phillip’s brother Frank had been killed the previous month.
 
Phillip returned from leave on 19th January and almost immediately began to prepare for a train journey to Sydney where the reinforcements boarded the “Ayrshire” for the long sea voyage to England via South Africa and Sierra Leone. The reinforcements landed at Devonport on 12th April 1917 and proceeded to the 4th Division Training Base at Codford where Phillip probably received his first real training for an eventual deployment to the western front.
 
Phillip crossed over to France with other reinforcements on 6th August. Once he was processed through the large transit camp at Etaples he arrived at his battalion in late August.
At that time, the first in what would prove to be a series of actions in the Ypres salient in Belgium had successfully gained vital ground and the real objective of the campaign, an advance to the Passchendaele Ridge could begin. When Phillip joined the 52nd, the battalion was in billets at Steenvoorde training with other battalion of the 13th Brigade in preparation for moving up to the line.
 
The 52nd moved up to relieve another battalion on Westhoek Ridge on 22nd September and then pushed on to the front line two days later to take up positions at Garter Point for an attack on Polygon Wood. At some time during the attack, Phillip Kluck was killed. This was his first time in action and he was just 20. The battalion war diary records that only four soldiers were killed on 26th September and Phillip was unlucky to be one of them. There is a notation in his file that Phillip was buried and a map reference is given. Sadly, that part of the battlefield was subjected to almost constant shell fire for the next nine months and all trace of Phillip’s grave was lost.
 
Phillip’s mother, who had been widowed since 1916, received her sons few personal artefacts which included an identity disc, a wallet, photos, a pencil and a metal name plate. A family member had signed the receipt on Rose’s behalf and Rose had attached her mark. Rose’s difficulty with reading and writing meant that she did not complete the Roll of Honour Circular nor provide any details when her son was commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres. The registry simply records Phillip’s name, number, rank, unit and date of death. Rose was granted a pension of two pounds per fortnight in addition to the pension she was receiving on account of Frank’s death.
 
Each evening, the citizens of Ypres (now Ieper) close the Menin Gate to traffic and conduct a ceremony under the stone vaults of the arch which includes the recitation of the ode and the playing of the last post by the City’s Bugle Corps.