Private 971 Clarence Frank Judge 32nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force was born Goudhurst, Kent the last quarter of 1887.

In 1901 Clarence, a grocer’s assistance was at the home of his uncle William, a grocer and farmer, and aunt Harriet at their Marden Beech shop.

On the 23rd of May 1912 he emigrated to Australia on the New Zealand bound liner Ionic of the Shaw Saville and Albion Line. Clarence was travelling with Ino(?) Judge a carpenter both bound for Hobart.

He was resident at Lord Street, Perth when he enlisted on the 23rd of June 1915.

The Virtual War Memorial Australia https://vwma.org.au further records that he was employed as a grocer.

Clarence was killed in action on the 20th of July 1916 has no known grave and is remembered on V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France. He is also remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour and on the Nangeen War Memorial and the Marden War Memorial in Kent.

The following is taken from vwma.org:

He was formerly been apprenticed to W.E. Brooker of Marden, Kent. On being asked if he had ever been rejected for service in any of His Majesty's Forces, he stated that he had been, on account of his height.

Clarence sailed from Adelaide, South Australia on board H.M.A.T. Geelong (A2) on Thursday 18 November 1915, and disembarked at Suez, Egypt on Saturday 18 December 1915. On the completion of his service in Egypt, Clarence embarked with his battalion at Alexandria, Egypt to join the British Expeditionary Force on Saturday 17 June 1916. He disembarked at Marseilles, France on Friday 23 June 1916.

Following his death, Clarence was initially posted as ‘Missing’ but as the result of the following Certified Statement by Private, 334 L. J. Western which he gave on Thursday 12 April 1917, stating that Clarence had succumbed to wounds; Clarence was then to be reported as 'Killed in Action, 20 July 1916.' 

The Red Cross File No. 1470703, appertaining to Clarence’s death is as follows:-

“334 Pte L.J. WESTERN, D Company, 8th Bn, 5 January 1917: 'On retiring from the German trenches in the Fromelles region on the morning of July 20th 1916 [1078] Pte [G.S.] Gibney and myself passed over the German front line together and we just exchanged the usual greetings "Good-day" although it was a rotten day, by the way. When about in the middle of "No Man's Land" I got a bullet so dropped into a shell hole and went to sleep for about five hours. When I awoke at what I judged to be about -- a.m. I heard someone calling in agonized tones "For God's sake give me some water!" On looking along the water gutter leading to the shell hole, I saw my friend Guy Gibney and another fellow, so having about half a dozen mouths full of water in my bottle, I crawled to them and gave them a sip ach, at least shared it between them. His mate was Pte C.J. (sic) Judge. Gibney was badly wounded in the upper part of the legs and chest by shrapnel I should say, while Judge was wounded in the shin part of the left leg also body. After I gave them water, barely more than two mouthfuls each, they became quiet and to a casual onlooker apparently asleep, but I regret to say, they succumbed to their wounds. About eighteen hours after I got hit I crawled into our own lines, under cover of darkness.”

When Clarence’s affairs were eventually settled in London on 14 July 1931, they revealed that prior to enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War; he had resided at “St. Ives,” Irwin Street, Perth, Western Australia. The relevant documentation also showed that he had been amongst the members of his battalion who had fallen at Fromelles, Nord, France on Thursday 20 July 1916.

Fromelles - July 1916

On the morning of Wednesday 19 July 1916, after a preliminary bombardment, two infantry divisions which had only recently arrived on the Western Front; the 5th Australian and 61st (South Midland) Divisions undertook what is officially known as the ‘Attack at Fromelles.’

They attacked a 4,000 yard section of the German front line centred on a notorious strongpoint called the Sugar Loaf. Advancing over unfavourable ground, in clear view of resolute and expectant defenders, the attackers suffered terrible casualties in a matter of minutes. The action turned into a bloody catastrophe, and the Australians had over 5,500 killed, wounded and missing. The 61st Division reported over 1,500 officers and other ranks killed, wounded and missing, out of 3,400 who took part in the attack.

The Australian left and centre reached the German trenches and held their second line during the day and night, but the right was held off by a fierce machine-gun barrage and only reached the front line in isolated groups.

The action was broken off on the morning of Thursday 20 July, after the 5th Australian Division had lost over 5,500 officers and men. It was the first serious engagement of the Australian forces in France, and the only one to achieve no success.

CWGC Cemeteries at Fromelles

V.C. Corner Cemetery was made after the Armistice. It contains the graves of 410 Australian soldiers who died in the ‘Attack at Fromelles’ and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but not a single body could be identified. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a memorial the names of all the Australian soldiers who were killed in the engagement and whose graves were not known.

V.C. Corner Cemetery is one of two Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries at the village of Fromelles.

Completed in July 2010, and officially dedicated on 19 July 2010, Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery is the first new war cemetery to be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in fifty years. The cemetery contains 250 Australian and British soldiers, whose remains were recovered in 2009 from a number of mass graves located behind nearby Pheasant Wood, where they had been buried by the Germans following the disastrous ‘Attack at Fromelles’ on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 July 1916. Unlike V.C. Corner Cemetery, at the village of Fromelles, (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery has 97 of the casualties who are at rest there that have been identified. No tactical advantages resulted from the action and it remains the worst day in Australian military history. 

[Corporal 51350 Walter Guy Judge 16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, brother of Clarence, was killed in action 23rd of March 1918 he has no known grave and is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial on the Somme]