Page 19 - Memorial Groves

PLAQUE NO 26: PLAQUE NO 28:

Sgt Astley C. Cooper (1892-1900) Pte Francis F. Cobham (1910)

8th Battery 6th A.F.A. Bde 28th Battalion
Killed in Action: Messines Ridge Killed In Action: Menin Road, Belgium
25 June 1917. Age 35. 20 September 1917. Age 19
Sergeant Astley Cooper attended Hale School between 1892 and 1900. He won a School Private Francis Cobham's father, Walter, was a Perth bank manager.
English prize in 1896. After leaving school he trained as an engineer at the Kalgoorlie
School of Mines and subsequently lived in South Perth. He joined an artillery unit at the Francis entered Hale School in 1910 and eventually embarked for the Western Front as a replacement
outbreak of the war and served on Gallipoli with the 8th Field Artillery Battery. He then in the 28th Battalion early in 1917. He was killed in action in Belgium a few months after joining the
went to the Western Front and was killed at the Battle of Messines Ridge, after nearly battalion.
three years of continuous service.
Dedicated by two younger Old Boys of the School, David (1992-97) and Sam Benson (1994-99).
Dedicated by Hale School. Their great-great-uncle Lewis John Broad, of the Western Australian 11th Battalion, was killed in
Placed by his daughter Mrs Kathleen Astley Rigg of Claremont, the same vicinity as Francis Cobham - Menin Road, Belgium - on the same day, the 20th September
assisted by her sons John and Bill and grandson Sam. 1917.
Placed by Mrs Sue Benson and Sam Benson.
Mrs Rigg was a donor toward the building of the Hale School Memorial Hall nearly 40
years before and is a great-great niece of Hale School's very first pupil in 1858, Laurence
Eliot of Bunbury.

PLAQUE NO 27:

Lt George L.C. Clifton (1907) "Later in 1917 the Australian forces were moved northward

28th Battalion/ No 1 Sqn R.F.C. again into the Ypres, Belgian, sector of the line, in an attempt
Died Flying Training: Doullens, Somme Valley
22 July 1917. Age 21.
to break through the infamous Passchenaele Ridge and on to
Lieutenant George Clifton, the son of the State Under-Secretary for Lands, Mr Robert
Clifton, enrolled at Hale School in 1907. He joined the 28th Battalion as a private and capture the Channel ports."
served on Gallipoli. When the unit went to France he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps
and trained as a pilot. He was posted to No 1 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, in France,
but was killed in a flying accident at Doullens.

Dedicated by his family.
Placed by his sister, Mrs Minarose Sherlock, assisted by her daughter Mrs Ann Cornish.