Private
Clarence POND
Infantry
Died: 3rd June 1918 - Age: 22

Commemorated:

1. Memorial:Villers-Bretonneux Memorial
2. Memorial:The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour24D GQS
    

Awards & Titles:

 

Family :

Born 1895, son of Alfred James and Margaret Pond; husband of Annie Pearl Pond, of Hutton St., Collie, Western Australia. Born at Pitt Town, Wallsend, New South Wales. Clarence attended schools at Mount Morgans, Lancefield and the Kalgoorlie School of Mines from where he graduated as a chemist and as an assayer.

He was employed as a coal miner at Wallsend and then a gold miner at Bendigo before settling in Boulder, Western Australia. He was employed at mines at Ivanhoe, Bullfinch and North Corinthia.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

Unit / Ship / Est.: 11/Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 

Action : The First Battles of the Somme 1918 and associated actions 

21 March - 4 July 1918. The Battles of the Somme in 1918 were mostly concerned with stemming the German advance which started in March 1918 and which made considerable gains in the Somme/Arras sector. Utilising surplus troops which had become available following the surrender of Russia after the October Revolution, the Germans gambled on a massive campaign that could win the war in the west before the USA could bring its resources to bear. Initial gains were in places spectacular but eventually dogged resistance coupled with supply problems and sheer exhaustion closed down the battle. Other attacks were launched along the front to probe the Allied defences but the same pattern of initial gains followed by stalemate prevailed. British casualties were almost 345,000.

Detail :

Private Clarence Pond, service number 7571 of 11 Battalion, Australian Infantry Force.

Clarence enlisted in June 1916 and in December married Annie Pearl Allen at Queens Church, Boulder. He was posted to 25 reinforcement of 11 Battalion and after training at Blackboy Hill Military Camp embarked on HMAT Borda at Fremantle in June 1917. He arrived at Plymouth in August and was posted to 3 Training Battalion at Durrington and later to Sutton Veny at the Signal Training School. He embarked to France with his unit as a signaller and in May 1918 was part of the attack at Mont de Merris.

Clarence was killed in action at Mont de Merris on 3 June 1918. He was 26 years of age.

His death was reported in the Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 - 1950) Wednesday 3rd July 1918 "That he lay down his life for us. POND.—Killed in action, 3rd June, 1918, Signaller Clarence Pond, dearly beloved husband of Annie Pearl, and father of little Alan; only son of Mr. and Mrs. JamesPond, and brother of Maggie, 35 Dart-street, Boulder. " and also the Western Argus (Kalgoorlie, WA : 1916 - 1938) Tuesday 9 July 1918 with the same text.

Clarence is commemorated by a plaque (MW46A) in the Kings Park's Botanic Garden in Perth, Western Australia, dedicated by his grandchildren on 20th May 2017.

Masonic :

TypeLodge Name and No.Province/District :
Mother : Longleat No. 1478 E.C.Wiltshire

Initiated
Passed
Raised
3rd April 1918
-
-
 

Clarence was recorded on the registers of Longleat Lodge No. 1478 as a Chemist, R.A.M.C. resident at Suttton Veny. The R.A.M.C. annotation part was probably an assumption made due to his career as a Chemist, but his residence coincides with other evidence of his encampment at Sutton Veny. The final annotation against his entry is that he was "Killed in Action June/18." Sadly, he was a short-lived Freemason only attaining Entered Apprentice.

The date of his birth in the masonic record is questionable. He is recorded aged 26 giving a birth year of 1892, whereas in other research it states 1895.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

Additional Source:

Last Updated: 2020-03-16 13:16:03