BAILEY, Arthur Ernest
| Service Number: | 3455 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 7 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 12th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | St Helens, Tasmania, Australia, 6 May 1891 |
| Home Town: | St Helens, Break O'Day, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | St Helens State School, Tasmania, Australia |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in action, Messines, Belgium, 7 June 1917, aged 26 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3455, 12th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 3455, 12th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 10 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 3455, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Melbourne |
Help us honour Arthur Ernest Bailey's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Arthur Ernest Bailey was one of three sons of Frederick and Mary Ann Bailey of St Helens, Tasmania who enlisted during WW1. The other two sons both served in the 5th Field Artillery Brigade and returned to Australia during 1919.
During 1917 a letter was published in the Launceston Examiner, “Writing to his father at St. Helens from France on March 4. Gunner A. E. Bailey says: —We came out of the line last week after being in for over 50 days. Talk about cold! It was something awful--rain, snow, and ice. The ice was three feet thick in some of the shell holes, and everything was frozen. Even the bread was that cold one could hardly eat it without warming it. Our boots used to be frozen of a morning when we went to put them on, but it is getting a bit better now, although quite bad enough. Yet they say we can't stand the cold! It seems to me that we stand it, just as well as the rest of them.”
Arthur had previously been wounded at Mouquet Farm during September 1916 before he went missing at Messines during the attack on 7 June 1917.
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