Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 20/08/1914
- Place of Enlistment
- Kensington NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Other Name(s)
- Known as 'Alf'
- Date of Birth
- 11/06/1887
- Place of Birth
- Queanbeyan NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- 'Ivy Cling', George Street, Queanbeyan NSW
- School(s) Attended
- Queanbeyan Public School
- Occupation
- Carter
- Next of Kin
- Son of Isaac and Rosanna Meech, 'Ivy Cling', George Street, Queanbeyan NSW
- Burial Place
No known burial place
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 1148
- Final Rank
- Private
- Final Unit
- 3 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died 7 August 1915, Lone Pine, Gallipoli, Turkey
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 37, Canberra ACT
Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Roll of Honor Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW
Memorial plaque in porch of Christ Church, Queanbeyan NSW
Notes
Alf Meech was born in 1887 in Queanbeyan and was a grandson of Canberra pioneers Joseph and Susan Blundell and related to several long time district families. He worked for the Queanbeyan Age and was engaged to be married when he enlisted in August 1914 in Sydney and served as a Private in A Company, 3rd Battalion. Meech landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and was batman to a Lieutenant W.B. Carter. During the Battle of Lone Pine on the Gallipoli peninsula in August 1915, the 3rd Battalion attacked the centre of the Turks at Lone Pine from their position at The Pimple. According to an eyewitness Meech was wounded by a bomb in the trenches on the night of 7 August. He was not evacuated until daybreak and died soon after. It wasn't until June the following year that a Court of Enquiry determined that Meech had been killed in action.
Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 134 pounds, chest 35 inches, complexion fair, blue eyes, light brown hair, Church of England.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Files
WWI Nominal Roll http://www.awm.gov.au/nominalrolls/ww1
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys', Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Queanbeyan Age - 9 July 1915, 27 July 1915, 28 January 1916, 16 May 1916, 14 August 1917, 18 December 1923
The Canberra Times - 11 November 1990
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Anguish of Jessie Meech', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial