Historical information

Installed as part of a stage of renovations to the War Memorial Park in eary 2002. This sign establishes a connection with the First World War by way of the painting "Menin Gate at Midnight". (NL 144)

Since this photograph was taken (date unknown) the information panel has been restored and re-erected by staff of the Shire of Nillumbik who replicated the wooden side frame pieces with the same wood-turn design as seen here in the original.

Physical description

Colour photograph

Inscriptions & markings

MENIN GATE AT MIDNIGHT
Will Longstaff, 1927
Oil on canvas,
Size 135cm high x 254cm wide
Collection: Australian War Memorial
The artist Will Longstaff was born in in Ballarat in 1879 and died at Littlehampton, Sussex, UK, 1953. Will Longstaff for many years lived in Eltham, his son Tommy, attending school at Kangaroo Ground. As an Official War Artist, will Longstaff depicted in his alegorical painting the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.
The Memorial unveiled on 24th July 1927 honours by name over 50, 000 allied soldiers who fell in the Great War and have no known graves. The names of 6,208 men of the first Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) are listed within the Memorial on stone tablets. The painting held huge emotional appeal to Australians when it arrived from England in 1928, attracting an estimated one million viewers, many of whom interpreted the field of red poppies in the foreground as the spirits of the dead rising from their unknown graves.
The painting is to be found in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

References