Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

01/05/1916

Place of Enlistment

Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Strood, Chatham, England

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier / Instructional Staff, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Military College, Duntroon, ACT

Next of Kin

Son of John Coles (father), 86 Arundel Road, Littlehampton, England

Burial Place

Belgium 11 Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

8 Australian Field Artillery Brigade AIF

Died of wounds near Ypres, Belgium on 5 October 1917 aged 36 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 15, Canberra ACT
St John the Baptist's Church, Canberra, Roll of Honour, Reid ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT

David Coles was an Englishman from Kent and was an instructor at the Royal Military College, Duntroon (from 11 April 1913) when he was appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant on 1 May 1916. He arrived in France in December 1916 with the 8th Field Artillery Brigade serving with its 31st Battery and then the 29th Battery from April 1917. He was in action near Ypres during September 1917 but received gun shot wounds to the chest whilst in action in October 1917. Coles was admitted to the 3rd Field Ambulance and then to the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station but died the next day, 5 October 1917. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, 1¾ miles south west of Poperinghe in Belgium. He was a parishioner of St. John's in Canberra and is commemorated at the church.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM Collections record: A04160
First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1952 (p.45)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)