Person:Gerben Sinnema (11)

Regimental number 900 Place of birth Harlingen, Holland School Harlingen Sailor's School, Holland Age on arrival in Australia 24 Religion Methodist Occupation Rigger Address Hannell Street, Wickham, New South Wales Marital status Single Age at embarkation 33 Next of kin Brother, Domire Sinnema, Harlingen, Holland Previous military service Served with the Dutch naval Forces for one year. Enlistment date 11 December 1915 Rank on enlistment Private Unit name 35th Battalion, C Company AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/52/1 Embarkation details Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A24 Benalla on 1 May 1916 Rank from Nominal Roll Lance Corporal Unit from Nominal Roll 56th Battalion Other details from Roll of Honour Circular" "His best friend was No.1740 John G. Somerville of the 56th Battalion. He acknowledged first the dead of my son by a little letter written with lead pencil in the field in France on dated 2 April 1917. Sommerville's letter reached me a week before the dead tiding of the authorities came. Somerville has not been killed and returned to Sydney. I long for his address to write that best young man." [Father Douvre Sinnema of Harlingen, Holland.] Fate: Killed in Action 2 April 1917 Place of death or wounding: Louvevuis, Fremicourt, France Commemoration details : Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns. Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial: 163 Other details War service: Western Front Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Harlingen, Friesland, Netherlands. Burgerlijke Stand.

   Geboorteakte Harlingen, 1882, Louvevuis, Fremicourt, France