Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918
Pte Gordon Menere, France, 1916. Source: Mandy
Mottram, Ancestry.com
Menere G J Pte 5139 Gordon John Mead 5 Inf Bn 30 Steward Married Meth
Address: Moonee Ponds, Eglinton St, 111
Next of Kin: Menere, A, Mrs, wife, 111 Eglinton St, Moonee Ponds
Enlisted: 14 Jan 1916
Embarked: A23 Suffolk 1 Apr 1916
Relatives on Active Service:
Graham V Pte 3817 brother in law POW
Graham H Pte 58 brother in law
"MISSING" SOLDIER FOUND
How a soldier may be wrongly reported as missing is shown in a letter
recently received by Mrs. A. Menere,of Eglinton street, Mooned Ponds, from
her husband, Private A. Menere, whowas reported in December, as being
missing in France. A week later thereport was corrected, as it was found
that Private Menere was in hospital. In the course of his letter he writes: —
"I have received more attention from the Red Cross than you would
think it possible to give any one individual, considering the hundreds
continually passing through their hands. Goodness knows If you have had any
reports of me through the War Office. I only awoke to the fact a couple of
days ago that my battalion will report me missing unless they know where I
am. I sent, a note explaining, so that everything will be put right. My medi-
cal card says 'Exhaustion' and that is exactly how I feel. This is how it
"Two runners, one machine gunner, a grenadier and myself set out for the
front line from a reserve trench, a distance of about a mile. After we had
gone about 300 yards we got the first reception from the German snipers.
We had to go from shell-hole to shell-hole, as what was left of the trenches
was of no use: they were almost full of mud and water. When I found the
trench and reported myself, I was fairly knocked out and wet through. I
stayed until the following night, when my battalion was relieved, but was too
weak to follow them far. I threw away everything I had, and kept up for
a while, as progress is very slow, but could not get along. Then once again
was alone, this time in the dark, with a machine gun rattling out bullets and
all sorts of shells bursting and screeching everywhere.
I remember going along a place, nick-named 'The Valley of Death' (and
so it was ), and after that I seemed to lose my senses. Some artillery chaps
found me just as the day was break ing, and gave me a hand to a field
"MISSING" SOLDIER FOUND (1917, March 24). The Herald
(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242687920
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Pte G. J. Menere, of Eglinton street, Moonee Ponds, who was reported missing last November, was subsequently picked up and taken to hospital, suffering from exhaustion and trench feet. He returned to his battalion early in April, and last week his wife was notified that he was suffering from shell shock.
ROLL OF HONOUR. (1917, June 7). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 3 Edition: Morning. Retrieved May 13, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74602782
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CAPTAIN DUG OUT TWICE
"The firing In these last few battles has eclipsed Bullecourt." says Pte. G
J. Menere, in a letter to his wife, who lives at Moonee Ponds.
"You will see in the papers the name of the wood we were fighting in, so if
you have a map you will see where it all happened. I was in the trenches
three days and nights. When I say trenches, I mean the front line trenches.
And what a time we had. My company got it very hard while we were holding
the trenches. Our right had a hop over one morning, which meant that we
were shelled by the heavy guns for 21 hours unceasingly, I do not think there
was one in the trench who was not buried at least three or four times. I
had to dig our captain out twice.
"The ground was very sandy where we were, and we had to seek shelter
by digging into the trench, as Fritz was putting over a lot of high explosive
shrapnel. Consequently, when a shell struck any where near the trench the
vibration would cave the lot in. For a few hours we had a very critical time.
The Hun airmen were flying very low over our trench, signalling to their
artillery exactly where we were in the trench. What a time we had! The shells
were bursting everywhere. We could not get away from them. "This went on
for an hour, when our planes came across. One of them flew along the trench,
so low that we could have touched the machine almost by holding up a rifle.
He flew away as soon as he had travelled the whole length of the trench. He must
have taken word of our plight to headquarters. for very soon our guns open
ed up. I could almost take my oath that 2000 guns opened fire and fired
hard for 20 or 30 minutes. It would be impossible to describe, the row and
swish of the shells.
"I am now about 20 miles from the firing line. I feel very
much shaken, and have a couple of flesh wounds, but they are a mere nothing,
and in a week or two I shall probably be back with my unit."
CAPTAIN DUG OUT TWICE (1917, December 29). The Herald
(Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 8. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242437191
War Service Commemorated
Essendon Town Hall L-R
Essendon Gazette Roll of Honour Wounded
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