Joseph William Farrell

Memorial: South Gloucestershire war dead not on a local memorial

Regiment: 1st Australian Pioneer Battalion

Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Private 2609

Parents: Joseph and Fanny Farrell

Home address: 332 Edgeware Road, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia

Date of birth: 1895

Place of birth: Kingswood, Bristol

Date of death: 07/10/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site. Commemorated at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Not commemorated on a local memorial

Age: 22

Further information:

Joseph was born in Kingswood the son of a bootmaker and one of two children with an older sister Blanche. In August 1910, at the age of 15 he and his family left London bound for Sydney Australia aboard the ship “Marathon”.

Joseph enlisted in the Pioneer Battalion and it embarked for France and Flanders as part of the Australian Imperial Force. Before dawn on October 4th, 1917, the day of Joseph’s death, the Germans directed concentrated artillery fire at the Australian 1st and 2nd Divisions as they prepared to attack Broodseinde Ridge. The result was devastating. Almost 20% of the Australians waiting for orders to push forward became casualties and Joseph was one of them. The Battle of Broodseinde Ridge was ultimately an allied victory but at a cost of 20,000 casualties. Albert’s body was never found or identified and The Ypres Menin Gate Memorial, where he is remembered, bears the names of more than 54,000 soldiers who died in Belgium during WW1 and have no known grave.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/battle-of-broodseinde-ridge.html