Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

02/09/1914

Place of Enlistment

(1) Brisbane, Queensland; (2) Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

02/06/1896

Place of Birth

Rochdale, Lancashire, England

Address (at enlistment)

Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Meanwood Council School (England)

Occupation

Farm worker or groom employed at Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1916

Next of Kin

Son of Arthur and Sarah Brierley of Bolton, Lancashire, England

Burial Place

Belgium 125 Tyne Cot Cemetery Passchendaele

Service Number

3026

Final Rank

Corporal

Final Unit

57 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action) at Glencorse Wood near Ypres, Belgium, 26 September 1917 aged 21 years.

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 163, Canberra ACT

As a member of B Company, 9th Battalion AIF, Brierley took part in the first Anzac landing at Gallipoli at dawn on 25 April 1915. A week later a shell exploding near him at Gallipoli caused cerebral concussion. A medical report stated that he had "mental loss of speech and suffering shell shock, he returned to Base Hospital where he acted queerly. Refused to speak, nor take food. On one occasion he went to a pillow and kicked it, exclaiming 'this man is a Turk and the man who has been following me from Gallipoli'. He was seen eating paper and wandered away from the ward." His mental condition resulted in Brierley returning to Australia and being discharged on 7 January 1916.

He moved to Canberra and worked as a groom at the Royal Military College, Duntroon from May 1916 until he re-enlisted on 13 July 1916 at RMC. He served with XV Platoon in D Company of the 57th Battalion in France from April 1917 and was at the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917. Brierley was promoted to Corporal in July but was killed by the concussion of a bursting shell in a trench near Glencorse Wood (near Ypres, Belgium) between 10am and 11am on 26 September 1917 as his unit was advancing on Polygon Wood. He was buried where he fell and a cross was erected. His body was later recovered and buried in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.

Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 143 pounds, chest 32-36 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Presbyterian.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
First World War Nominal Roll
First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000.
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)