Lance Corporal Gilbert Cecil Munday
Australian War MemorialGilbert Munday was born on Christmas Day 1890, the third son of Alfred and Melinda Munday of Crystal Brook, South Australia. He grew up in nearby Wandearah, where he attended the local state school. His family were active in the Wandearah East Methodist Church. His father farmed their selection, first with Gilbert’s uncle William and later on his own, for nearly 40 years. Gilbert went on to work as a farmer in the same district, probably on his father’s property.
Gilbert enlisted in the Australian Imperial force in February 1915, and shortly afterwards was posted to the newly formed 27th Battalion. He underwent a period of training in Australia, leaving for active service overseas on 31 May 1915. After arriving in Egypt, the 27th Battalion spent two months training in the desert before being sent to Gallipoli in September.
Gilbert Munday arrived on Gallipoli after the major offensives were over. His battalion would have a relatively quiet time until the evacuation at the end of the year. Gilbert was promoted to lance corporal while on the peninsula, but in November he was evacuated suffering from jaundice. He was taken to hospital in Malta, where his recovery was interrupted by a case of dysentery contracted early in the new year. After further treatment in hospital, he recovered his strength on light duties for several more weeks.
Lance Corporal Munday returned to his battalion in Egypt a week before they were shipped out to Marseilles to join the war on the Western Front. The 27th Battalion was first sent to a quieter sector in the north, where the men were able to gain valuable experience of trench warfare conditions. Over the following weeks, the battalion would conduct a number of reconnaissance and raiding patrols into no man’s land.
On the night of 5 May 1916, Lance Corporal Gilbert Munday was a member of a small scouting party sent forward to investigate no man’s land. The party was noticed by German sentries not far away, and came under fire. When Munday and his lieutenant, John Ross, were wounded, Lance Corporal George Davies and Private Patrick Tymons came to their assistance. Davies escorted Ross from the field with a shattered arm. Tymons remained behind with Gilbert Munday, who was severely wounded and writhing in pain. Although his groans kept the pair in danger of drawing more German fire, they remained safe until Davies could return with a stretcher. The pair then dragged Munday out of no man’s land on a stretcher, and partly on Davies’s back, to their own lines.
Their effort, which saw them awarded Military Medals, was in vain. Lance Corporal Gilbert Davies had either died on his way back to his own lines, or shortly after arriving there. He was buried nearby, and today lies in X Farm Cemetery near Armentieres under the words “In remembrance of Gil. Beloved son of M. and A. Munday: A noble sacrifice.”