Dudley Joseph CLIFT

CLIFT, Dudley Joseph

Service Number: 844
Enlisted: 22 March 1915, Maitland, New South Wales
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 20th Infantry Battalion
Born: Maitland, New South Wales, Australia, April 1883
Home Town: Breeza, Gunnedah, New South Wales
Schooling: Hunter Valley Grammar School, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation: Grazier/Stock & Station Agent
Died: Wounds, France, 28 March 1917
Cemetery: St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen
Section O, Plot VIII, Row I, Grave 5
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Breeza and District War Memorial, Tamworth ANZAC Park Memorial Gates
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World War 1 Service

22 Mar 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 844, Maitland, New South Wales
25 Jun 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 844, 20th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1,

--- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Berrima embarkation_ship_number: A35 public_note: ''

25 Jun 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 844, 20th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Berrima, Sydney
16 Aug 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 844, 20th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli
11 Oct 1915: Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 20th Infantry Battalion, Reverts back to Private on 13 Jul 1916 at his own request
2 Mar 1917: Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 844, 20th Infantry Battalion, The Outpost Villages - German Withdrawal to Hindenburg Line, GSW (multiple)

Help us honour Dudley Joseph Clift's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography

My grand-father, Dudley, enlisted after the Gallipoli landing and was part of the 20th Battalion holding Russel's Top. He was evacuated from the Gallipoli Peninsular on 6th November due to illness, aboard the HS "Devanah" to Malta.

After recovering from several illnesses, he was sent to France, arriving at Marseilles on 2nd March 1916, and served on the Somme, despite several readmissions to hospital, during 1916 and early 1917.

On 4th March, Dudley was wounded when his Battalion was holding the line at Martinpuich. He was a member of the fatigue party taking rations ahead to the lines when they were heavily shelled, and he received five wounds from schrapnel. Although able to walk to a Field Ambulance, he was hospitalised and died of blood poisoning on March 28th 1917.

He was not married but left a son aged 10.

His original sepia photo has been lovingly restored and tinted by his great-granddaughter, Louise, of Blue Triangle Design (www.bluetriangledesign.com).

*** Embarkation Roll (www.awm.gov.au) has mistakenly recorded Surname as CLIFF ***

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