Armatree, NSW
6526
3rd Battalion,
Gulargambone war memorial
Returned to Australia 25.9.1919
Private Allan Law was a 25 year old farmer of Gulargambone when he enlisted at Dubbo on February 23, 1916. His father, Charles Law of Wattle Park, Armatree, was his next of kin Allan and his brother, Peter had the medical examination at Sydney Town Hall on February 2, 1916. It described him as 5’ 8” tall, 136 lbs (61.8kgs), chest 33 ½”-36”, dark complexion, brown eyes, brown hair, Presbyterian. No distinctive marks,
Allan trained at Dubbo and Liverpool with the 3rd Battalion before embarking at Sydney on the HMAT Ceramic on October 7, 1916. They disembarked at Plymouth on November 21, 1916 and continued training in England until he proceeded overseas to France on the SS Victoria on February 2, 1917, with his brother Peter. He joined the 3rd Battalion in Bazentin, France on February 12, 1917 when the unit was in the Somme Valley experiencing the cold, mud and snow of a severe winter. During 1917, Allan was with the 3rd Battalion when it was involved in the major battles of Messines, Bullecourt and Passchendaele, around Ypres in Belgium.
In August 1917 Allan was admitted to No 2 Military Hospital in Old Park, Canterbury in England with Trench Fever. A disease transmitted by body lice and common in the unhygienic conditions in the trenches. After treatment and convalescence, he returned to France in December 1917, when the battalion was in the north of France near Boulogne. In 918, they were back at the Somme, involved in helping stop the German Spring Offensive in May and April 1918.
Allan was wounded in action on June 20, 1918 at Strazeele, France. He was treated at the Chatham Military Hospital in England and returned to France in time to celebrate the Armistice on November 11, 1918. He was back in England in April 1919. In June 1919, his parents and the Gulargambone policeman wrote to the army requesting his return to the farm as his father and brother were experiencing difficulties. Allan returned on the Fort Dension, disembarking at Sydney on November 17, 1919 and was discharged on January 1, 1920.
Allan was issued the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He died on June 29, 1959, aged 69 and is buried at Goulburn, NSW.