Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/07/1915

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

09/10/1895

Place of Birth

Leneva West, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Son of David and Florence Mortimer of Wodonga, Victoria

Burial Place

No known burial place.

Final Rank

Captain

Final Unit

29 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action) on 20 July 1916 near Fromelles, France aged 20 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 116, Canberra ACT
VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT

Mortimer entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 10 March 1913 and was graduated early, along with the rest of his class, on 28 June 1915. Mortimer had been a member of the college's photography club and took numerous pictures of his fellow cadets. He was appointed as a Lieutenant with the 29th Battalion on 1 July 1915 and embarked with his unit for Egypt in November 1915. He was promoted to Captain in February 1916 and arrived in France four months later.

According to Bean, during the Battle of Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916, the 29th Battalion was in the left flank in the old German firing line in front of Delangre Farm. Mortimer was commanding a company defending the left flank against the Germans while men from the 32nd Battalion were in a forward position along a communication trench known as the Kastenweg. At around 3.15am on 20 July Mortimer went forward to warn the 32nd Battalion that the Germans were attacking between their two positions. He returned down the Kastenweg but was never seen again. The AWM record relates to letters written to his mother.

Description - height 5 feet 11 inches, weight 164 pounds, chest 35 inches, Church of England.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Collections Record : 1DRL/0519, P11688.001
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. III, 422n, 423-424, 438)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Hell Opened at Fromelles', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial