Captain Clarence Smith Jeffries

Ranks Held	Captain, Second Lieutenant
Birth Date	1894-10-26
Birth Place	Australia: New South Wales, Newcastle, Wallsend
Death Date	1917-10-12
Death Place	Belgium: Flanders, West-Vlaanderen, Passchendaele
Final Rank	Captain
Service	Australian Imperial Force
Units	9th Australian Infantry Brigade 34th Australian Infantry Battalion
Places	New South Wales Wallsend Passchendaele
Conflict/Operation	First World War, 1914-1918
Gazettes	Published in London Gazette in 1917-12-18 Published in Commonwealth Gazette in 1918-04-18

Description

The 9th Australian Brigade suffered bitter losses in its ill-fated attack on Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. Before he became one of the officers killed there, Clarence "Jeff" Jeffries (1894-1917) had led attacks on German machine-gun posts, capturing several guns and killing or capturing their crews.

Jeffries was just 22 and his family was well known in the Newcastle region, where he had been a mining surveyor on the state's northern coalfields. After the war his father went to Belgium and for a while personally led an ultimately successful search for his grave.

Collection items

Rolls

Honours and Awards:

Unit

34th Australian Infantry Battalion

Conflict

First World War, 1914-1918

Rank

Captain

London Gazette

18 December 1917 on page 13222 at position 1

Commonwealth Gazette

18 April 1918 on page 841 at position 3
Honours and Awards (Recommendation):

Unit

34th Australian Infantry Battalion

Conflict

First World War, 1914-1918

Rank

Captain
Roll of Honour:

Unit

34th Australian Infantry Battalion

Conflict

First World War, 1914-1918

Rank

Captain
First World War Embarkation Roll:

Conflict

First World War, 1914-1918

Rank

Second Lieutenant

Timeline

Date of birth	26 October 1894
Date of embarkation	02 May 1916
Date of death	12 October 1917
Date of honour or award	12 October 1917	Awarded the Victoria Cross for action at Passchendale, Belgium whilst serving with 34 Battalion, 9 Brigade, 3 Division as a Captain.