SERJEANT NORMAN HAMILTON REED
AUSTRALIAN ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
18TH SEPTEMBER 1917 AGE 23
BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Serjeant Reed's inscription comes from the first verse of Rupert Brooke's sonnet The Dead:
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
The 'Particulars required for the Roll of Honour of Australia in the Memorial War Museum' provide researchers with much valuable information on Australia's casualties. Serjeant Reed's father completed his form, combining the poignant detail that his son was 23 years (and 2 days) when he died with the biographical details that he:
"Enlisted Sept 1914. Embarked with No. 1 Stationary Hospital Unit from Melbourne 4th Dec 1914 was on Lemnos Island and at Gallipoli, and in England with the 1st Aust Gen Hospital at Dartford, England for a short time - afterwards went to France & joined the 1st Field Ambulance. Was an athlete, swimmer, cricketer,, Lacrosse & football. Had passed examinations (3) in the St John's Ambulance Assocn. hence being drafted to the AMC when he enlisted."
Although this form records that he died of wounds at Lijssenthoek it gives no details. These come from Lijssenthoek's own hospital records: "shrapnel wounds on abdomen and back at No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station".