FLATLEY, Martin
| Service Number: | 8593 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 1st Field Company Engineers |
| Born: | Batley, Yorkshire, England, 1889 |
| Home Town: | Annandale, Leichhardt, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Tramway Linesman's Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 4 October 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 2 May 1916: | Involvement Sapper, 8593, 1st Field Company Engineers, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 May 1916: | Embarked Sapper, 8593, 1st Field Company Engineers, HMAT Hororata, Sydney |
Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
Martin FLATLEY (Service Number 8593) was born in 1889 in Batley, Yorkshire. Coming to Australia with his brother George about 1909, Martin had been about a year in Queensland and had won an amateur wrestling championship there. Both brothers were working as coal miners in the Mount Pleasant Colliery, on the NSW South Coast, in 1911, when they were involved in a dispute with a mine deputy and convicted of assaulting him. Martin joined the Tramways in Sydney as a lineman’s labourer in May 1913. In 1915 he was granted leave to enlist in the AIF in Sydney, giving his ‘trade or calling’ as ‘chainman’.
He was killed in action on 4 October 1917, and buried in the Belgian Brewery Corner Military Cemetery, 1 mile SW of Ypres. After the war his remains were exhumed and reburied in the Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, 5¼ miles ENE of Ypres.
Submitted 6 July 2023 by John Oakes
Biography contributed by John Oakes
Martin FLATLEY (Service Number 8593) was born in 1889 in Batley, Yorkshire. He came to Australia with his brother George about 1909. Martin spent about a year in Queensland and won an amateur wrestling championship there. Both brothers were working as coal miners in the Mount Pleasant Colliery, on the NSW South Coast in 1911. They were involved in a dispute with a mine deputy and convicted of assaulting him. Martin joined the Tramways in Sydney as a lineman’s labourer in May 1913. In 1915 he was granted leave to enlist in the AIF in Sydney. He gave his occupation as ‘chainman’.
He was allotted to the Engineers and embarked from Sydney in May 1916,. He was sent to Egypt, then England, where he landed in August 1916. He was given nine days detention and forfeited 18 days’ pay for being Absent Without Leave in October,. Then he was sent to France. He spent some time being treated for scabies in November,. Then he rejoined his unit in the field in December 1916.
He was killed in action on 4th October 1917. He is buried in the Belgian Brewery Corner Military Cemetery, 1 mile SW of Ypres. After the war his remains were exhumed and reburied in the Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, 5¼ miles ENE of Ypres.
- based on notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
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