LIDGARD, Jack
| Service Number: | 383 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd Machine Gun Company |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Gympie, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 4 October 1917, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Corinda Sherwood Shire Roll of Honor, Graceville War Memorial, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient) |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 383, 11th Machine Gun Company, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Lincoln embarkation_ship_number: A17 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 383, 11th Machine Gun Company, HMAT Port Lincoln, Melbourne | |
| 4 Oct 1917: | Involvement Private, 383, 2nd Machine Gun Company, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 383 awm_unit: 2 Machine Gun Company awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1917-10-04 |
Help us honour Jack Lidgard's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Jack Lidgard was a 26 year old commercial traveller of Graceville when he enlisted on 18th May 1916. He had been born in Gympie and spent 6 months with the Gympie Infantry Volunteers.
Jack was drafted into the 11th Machine Gun Company and travelled to Seymour in Victoria for training with the Vicker’s Heavy Machine Gun. He embarked from Melbourne on 20th October 1916 and travelled to England via the Cape and Sierra Leone before arriving in England on 28th December.
Jack was transferred to the 5th Division Machine Gun Company and spent a further six months in training in England before arriving in France on 30th June 1917. He was to spend some time in hospital in France with mumps and myalgia before finally joining his unit on 29th September 1917.
Just five days later, Jack was listed as Missing in Action. A court of inquiry conducted five months later in March 1918 finally determined that Jack had been killed in action on 4th October by a shell blast at Passchendaele. His body was never recovered.
At war’s end, a huge memorial was constructed at the eastern gate in the town of Ypres in Belgium to commemorate almost 55,000 British and Dominion (Commonwealth) troops who perished in Flanders. Jack Lidgard’s name is carved on the tablets of the Menin Gate. Every evening since 1924, with only a short respite during the German Occupation 1940-44, a ceremony is held at 8:00pm at the Menin Gate which includes the playing of the Last Post and the laying of wreaths.
Jack Lidgard’s sister, Ethel, who continued to live in Graceville was so grieved by her brother’s passing that she instigated a subscription fund for the erection of a permanent memorial to all the men of the Sherwood Shire who had paid the supreme sacrifice. The Sherwood Shire War memorial was unveiled in Graceville Memorial Park on 20th November 1920.
Courtesy of Ian Lang
Mango Hill