GILHAM, Richard
| Service Number: | 2657 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 8 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Stawell, Victoria, Australia, 5 June 1897 |
| Home Town: | Coolgardie, Coolgardie, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Office Clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 3 September 1916, aged 19 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Kalgoorlie Boulder 84th Infantry Goldfields Regiment Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 8 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2657, 28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 2657, 28th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 2 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 2657, 28th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ulysses, Fremantle | |
| 3 Mar 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 2657, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2657 awm_unit: 51 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-09-03 |
Help us honour Richard Gilham's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Private Richard Gilham (Service No:2657) enlisted in the AIF on 8 August 1915 and was attached to 28th Infantry Battalion when he embarked from Fremantle on 2 November 1915 on board HMAT Ulysses A38.Initially reported MiA, Private Gilham was decalred KiA. Included in his effects returned to his mother were a Pipe, Testament and religious medallion, Wallet, Comforter, Revolver, and photo films.
Born in 1897 in Stawell in the Grampians in Victoria, Dick was the youngest of ten children of Albert Thomas (aka Atherly) Gilham (b1855 in Stawell, Victoria) and Ann (Annie Coles (b1856 at Mt Cole nr Stawell, Victoria). Albert (a Mill Worker) and Annie married in 1876 in Stawell, Victoria and lived at Pleasant Creek, Fyans Creek and Cavendish in the Grampians, Victoria and Bordertown and Wellington in South Australia. In 1899 Albert left Annie and the children and travelled to Tasmania where he enlisted in the Colonial Military Forces, serving with Tasmanian Mounted Infantry (Private; Service No:50) in the Boer War. Following discussions with the Army, Albert agreed to Annie receiving ten shillings weekly from his wages to support her family. Following Albert's death in South Africa in 1900, Annie and her children walked with several other families from the Grampians in Victoria to the Goldfields in Western Australia. Annie ran an Eating and Boarding House in Coolgardie and remarried in 1905.
Richard was working as an Office Clerk in Coolgardie and had served one month with Coolgardie Citizens Forces (84th Infantry Battalion) when he enlisted in the AIF.
Click images to start slideshow.