LE MAITRE, Alex Conrad
| Service Number: | 514 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 March 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 22nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Elaine, Victoria, Australia, May 1895 |
| Home Town: | Leongatha, South Gippsland, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Hit by shell no man's land, Pozieres, France, 5 August 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
Pozières British Cemetery Plot IV, Row P, Grave No. 10 |
| Memorials: | Elaine & District Roll of Honour WW1, Korumburra Kardella South State School No 3603, Korumburra Kardella State School No 3196, Korumburra War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 15 Mar 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 514, 22nd Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 1915: | Involvement Private, 514, 22nd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 10 May 1915: | Embarked Private, 514, 22nd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ulysses, Melbourne | |
| 1 May 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 22nd Infantry Battalion | |
| 5 Aug 1916: | Involvement Lance Corporal, 514, 22nd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 514 awm_unit: 22 Battalion awm_rank: Lance Corporal awm_died_date: 1916-08-05 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From François Berthout, Australia and New Zealand in WWI
Today, a new day begins under the peaceful sun of the Somme to come to make shine the memory of a son of Australia who gave his life on the lands of France, it is with gratitude that I wish to pay a very respectful tribute to Lance Corporal number 514 Alexander Conrad Le Maitre who fought in the 22nd Australian Infantry Battalion and who was killed in action 104 years ago on August 5, 1916 at the age of 20 on the Somme front.
Alexander Conrad Le Maitre was born in 1896 in Elaine, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of Peter and Susanna Le Maitre, of Kardella, Victoria, native of Elaine, Victoria.Before the war Alexander was single and worked as a clerk in Leongatha where he lived with his parents.
Enlisted in Leongatha on March 15, 1915 at the age of 19 in the 22nd Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 6th Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force, he embarked with his unit from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on May 10,1915 and sailed for the Gallipoli peninsula where he arrived on August 30, 1915.Alexander fought four months in Gallipoli with great courage before embarking for Egypt where he arrived on January 7, 1916 in Alexandria and joined the British expeditionary force then he embarked with his battalion for France on March 19, 1916 and was disembarked in Marseilles on March 26 and joined the battlefields of the Somme.
Once again, Alexander showed great bravery in the Somme and was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on May 1, 1916. Unfortunately, three months later, on the night of August 4 to 5, 1916, after the taking of Pozieres, and during the attack on Pozieres ridge, Alexander found himself in a trench with 20 men and asked Headquarters what to do. Headquarters replied to Alexander to advance and he did so, and after ran a few meters, he fell in front of his men after having been hit by a piece of shell in the head, he was only 20 years old.
On August 5, 1916, Alexander was declared missing in action before being, on October 17, 1916, officially declared to have been killed in action.
Today, Lance Corporal Alexander Conrad Le Maitre rests peacefully in the peace and serene silence of Pozieres British Cemetery among his comrades and his grave bears the following inscription "No life is short that has been nobly spent our dear Alex an ANZAC ".
Alexander, sir, you who came from Australia, this country which has its place in the heart of France and on the lands of the Somme, you who answered the call of duty and fought in the frozen mud of The Somme, I wish to express to you all my gratitude and all my respect, not only for having fought for a just cause but because through your sacrifice, you have offered us a world in peace, for my generation and for the next generations who will live after me, after us, today we can enjoy and live with our families, with our friends while you sacrificed your youth and your future in the trenches, in the great war which mowed down the youth, the dreams and the hopes of so many young men who had a life ahead of them and who said goodbye to their families and to the happiness they had to be in their homes.I think of you Alexander and your comrades, with deep respect and I will never forget all that you faced and endured, in the mud, in the cold, in this hell on earth that we can only try to imagine, it is here, in the Somme, that you fought and that you fell and today it is here, with your comrades and your brothers in arms that you rest in peace, in the fields and peaceful cemeteries of the Somme that the poppies bloom between the rows of your graves that the sun comes to lighten the names so that they live forever through the light and the eternal remembrance, in our hearts and in our thoughts, your face and your history, your memory will never fade, today it is through us that you live, with us, and we move forward learning from you by protecting the peace for which you and so many of your friends fought and fell.We will always be deeply grateful to you, thank you sir. rest in peace Arthur, I will always watch over you and your comrades, you will never be forgotten and you will always be remembered with respect and honors but also with the love that you all deserve.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.🌺
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