Commemorated:

1. Memorial:Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, FlandersPanel 7 - 17 - 23 - 25 - 27 - 29 - 31.
2. Book:The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918Pg.135
3. Memorial:The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour25D GQS
    

Awards & Titles:

 

Family :

Son of Margaret Skewes, of Merthyr Road, New Farm, Brisbane, and the late John Skewes. Native of Charters Tower, Queensland. Miner

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: 41/Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 

41st Battalion The 41st Battalion was raised at Bell?s Paddock Camp in Brisbane in February 1916 with recruits from Brisbane, northern Queensland and the northern rivers district of New South Wales. It formed part of the 11th Brigade of the 3rd Australian Division. After training in Australia and Britain, the 41st Battalion arrived in France on 25 November 1916. It entered the front line for the first time on Christmas Eve and spent the bleak winter of 1916?17 alternating between service in the front line, and training and labouring in the rear areas. Compared to some AIF battalions, the 41st?s experience of the battles in Belgium during 1917 was relatively straightforward. It had a supporting role at Messines on 7 June, captured its objectives at Broodseinde on 4 October with little difficulty, and was spared the carnage of Passchendaele on 12 October. It was some of the battalion?s more ?routine? tasks that proved its most trying experiences. At the end of June 1917, the 11th Brigade was ordered to establish a new front line west of Warneton, in full view of the Germans. Work carried on night and day under heavy shellfire and the period became known to the battalion as ?the 18 days?. The start of August found the 41st holding ground captured by two of its sister battalions in a feint attack on 31 July. Enduring continual rain, flooded trenches and heavy shelling many of the battalion?s platoons dwindled from 35 men to less than ten. Belgium remained the focus of the 41st Battalion?s activities for the five months after its action in October 1917 as it was rotated between service in the rear areas and the front line. When the German Army launched its last great offensive in March 1918, the battalion was rushed south to France and played a role in blunting the drive towards the vital railway junction of Amiens. The Allies launched their own offensive on 8 August 1918, and the 41st played an active role both in the initial attack and the long advance that followed throughout August and into September. The 41st participated in its last major action of the war between 29 September and 2 October 1918 as part of the Australian-American operation that breached the formidable defences of the Hindenburg Line along the St Quentin Canal. The battalion was out of the line when the war ended, and was disbanded in May 1919. 444 killed, 1577 wounded (including gassed) Decorations 1 VC 1 CMG 2 DSO 13 MC, 3 bars 12 DCM 82 MM, 2 bars 4 MSM 26 MID 7 foreign awards

Action : The Battles of Ypres 1917 (Third Ypres, or Passchendaele) 

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

ANZACS file offers little except he was injured in the testicles during bayonet training. Ouch!

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Charters Towers No. 1546 E.C.Queensland

Initiated
Passed
Raised
1st July 1914
2nd December 1914
30th December 1914
 

22 year old Miner from Charters Towers. War service is recorded in his line on the contribution record followed by "Killed in Action 5.10.1917."


Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

Additional Source:

Last Updated: 2021-01-30 08:47:43