CLARE, Edward Vincent
| Service Number: | 2537 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 42nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Kingaroy, South Burnett, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Christian Brothers |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Died of wounds, France, 8 August 1917, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Brisbane 42nd Infantry Battalion AIF Roll of Honour, Kingaroy Stone of Remembrance, Kumbia & District Fallen Roll of Honour Memorial, Kumbia WW1 Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 17 Nov 1916: | Involvement Private, 2537, 42nd Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Kyarra embarkation_ship_number: A55 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Nov 1916: | Embarked Private, 2537, 42nd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Kyarra, Brisbane |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Ian Lang
#2537 CLARE Edward Vincent 42nd Battalion
Edward Clare was born to parents Edward snr and Frances Clare in Brisbane. Young Edward was educated by the Christian Brothers in Brisbane and was a member of the school cadets.
The Clare family moved to the South Burnett and took up a farming block at Ellesmere outside Kumbia where Edward worked on the family farm.
Edward began the long journey to a recruiting depot by travelling about twenty miles to Kingaroy, then took a train to Gympie and another train on to Maryborough where he marched into the recruiting depot on 15thSeptember 1916. He had just turned 19 and he came with a form signed by both of his parents giving their permission to enlist. Edward probably returned home before embarking on the journey to Brisbane where he was taken on by the 11th Depot Battalion at Enoggera on 4th October before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 42nd Infantry Battalion.
Edward was granted pre-embarkation home leave on 31st October. He advised that his journey would take almost 24 hours, travelling by trains and then road. While visiting at Ellesmere, heavy rain prevented Edward from making it to Kingaroy to catch the Saturday train. He had to wait until 6am Monday for the next train and he had the proprietor of a Kingaroy Hotel write a note explaining his reason for overstaying his leave. The note is contained in Edwards file in the National Archives.
Edward and the other hundred or so reinforcements, overseen by two officers, boarded the Kyarra in Brisbane on 17th November and sailed via South Africa and Sierra Leone for England, arriving in Plymouth on 30th January 1917. The reinforcements went into barracks at Sutton Mandeville, outside Salisbury, for the next five months for further training. On 24th June, Edward boarded a train for the Southampton Docks where he boarded a ferry for the crossing of the English Channel, arriving in Rouelles on 26th June. After a short stay, Edward was moved on and, on the 13th July 1917, finally marched in to the 42nd Battalion Lines.
The Supreme British Commander on the Western Front, General Douglas Haig, planned a totally British campaign (in the context of WW1, British included Dominion and Empire troops) in the Ypres salient in Belgian Flanders aimed at spearing through the German defenders to the Belgian ports on the English Channel. To do so, Haig planned for a series of battles in the summer and autumn of 1917, each of which created a stepping stone to the next objective. The first of these stepping stones was a ridge line which was occupied by the enemy and overlooked the ground that was to be used for the build up of British forces. The ridge ran almost due south from a position just outside Ypres towards the village of Messines and on to Warneton on the French border.
At 3:10 am on the 7th June 1917, the Battle of Messines began with the firing of 19 underground mines beneath the Messines Ridge. It was the largest man-made explosion in history (up until that time) and the noise was heard in London. Over the ensuing weeks, the German forces, although initially stunned by the explosions on 7th June, soon recovered and began a series of counterattacks in an attempt to regain the ground that they had lost.
When Edward joined the 42nd Battalion, the unit had just come out from a successful engagement at Messines and was regrouping for another attack at Warneton. Red Cross Wounded and Missing reports from a number of witnesses relate that during the attack at Warneton on 31st July, Edward Clare was hit in the head and fell in front of two stretcher bearers who quickly removed him from the battle and relayed him to the 12th Field Ambulance. Edward was then moved on to a casualty clearing station and from there was transported to the New Zealand Stationary Hospital at Hazebrouck on 6th August.
Edward had sustained a severe gun shot wound to the head resulting in a compound skull fracture. His condition was listed as critical and he died from his wounds two days later. Edward was buried at the nearby Hazebrouck Military Cemetery. Edward was still only 19 and he had been with his battalion a total of 18 days. After some delay due to Edwards’s personal effects being sent to the Public Curator, his mother received a parcel containing a religious text, a wallet and purse, an identity disc and a broken wristwatch.
When permanent headstones were being erected over the graves of those who had died, Edward’s family chose the following inscription:
HAVE MERCY UPON HIM LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON HIM.