Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

12/01/1916

Place of Enlistment

Tooraweenah NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Gus'

Place of Birth

Mundooran NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Blayney NSW (previously Cotter Junction ACT)

School(s) Attended

Convent School, Blayney NSW

Occupation

Fettler

Next of Kin

Ann Chalson (mother), Blayney NSW

Service Number

2502

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

1 Australian Tunnelling Company AIF

Died 29 September 1917 aged 39 years, at Westhoek, Belgium

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 26, Canberra ACT
Menin Road South Military Cemetery, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Flanders, Belgium
Blayney War Memorial

Chalson was a fettler from Blayney who, before the war, worked on the Cotter Dam where he was secretary of the workers mess. He joined the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company on the Western Front in June 1916 and served with them in tunnelling operations at Hill 60 to the south east of Ypres, Belgium in November 1916. The Australian tunnellers were at Hill 60 on 7 June 1917 when they blew the galleries as part of the Battle of Messines creating a huge crater. Chalson was killed by German shelling while building dugouts on Westhoek ridge on 29 September 1917.

Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, weight 141 pounds, chest 34-36 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Catholic. The first joint of the second finger of his right hand was missing.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM Collections Record: P12042.001
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 14 March 1913