ALLEN, Stephen Charles
| Service Number: | 3002 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 18 July 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 13th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Balmain, New South Wales, Australia, 1891 |
| Home Town: | Manly, Manly Vale, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Carter |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Mouquet Farm, France, 14 August 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Commemorated in Manly West Cemetery., Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Manly War Memorial NSW, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 18 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3002, 13th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 3002, 13th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ballarat embarkation_ship_number: A70 public_note: '' | |
| 6 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 3002, 13th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ballarat, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Stephen Charles Allen was born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain in 1891 but lived mostly in Manly NSW. The 23-year-old carter enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 18 July 1915. His brother Robert had enlisted just over a week earlier. Both brothers departed Sydney with reinforcements for the 13th Infantry Battalion, during September 1915.
The following June, Stephen Allen and his brother arrived on the Western Front with other men of the 13th Battalion. In letters home to his mother and sister he wrote that he was glad to have left Egypt and described the incessant rain at the front. In one letter to his sister Allen included a preserved poppy. He was with the 13th Battalion when the unit fought in its first major actions at Pozières and at nearby Mouquet Farm in July and August 1916. On 14 August, in the midst of the fighting around Mouquet Farm, both Allen brothers failed to report back in after fatigue duty. Initially listed as missing in action, a court of inquiry found that the two brothers had been killed in action by the same artillery shell, close to the front line. Stephen Charles Allen and Robert Beattie Allen are commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.
Their father had died in 1897, so their mother and sisters had the brothers names inscribed on his headstone in the Manly West Cemetery, their epitaph ending in 'Who gave their lives for freedom, In France August 14th 1916, In death they were not divided.'
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