Alick, born in 1893, had attended Newtown Superior Public School and was a promising sportsman in cricket and football. As a 21-year-old, he played 2nd grade rugby league football and had the highest individual score in Junior grade cricket in 1915 at Moore Park in Sydney. He was also working as a boilermaker’s labourer or ironworker’s assistant for the NSW Railways.

He was the youngest surviving child of William Clingan and Ruth Langdon. William and Ruth had married in 1880 at the Congregational Church in Waterloo, Sydney before moving to Joadja Creek near Mittagong. William worked as a furnace man at the shale mines. Joadja Creek had a large Scottish mining population and William himself was born in Glasgow but had emigrated with his parents as an infant in 1854. He died in Newtown in 1907 aged 55.

Ruth was born in New South Wales to English emigrant parents. She and William had a family of seven - two daughters and five sons, the youngest of whom died as an infant. The family were Methodist and Ruth taught classes in the City Mission Hall at Newtown and was later involved with the Church Aid in Campsie.

When Alick, then the youngest of her brood, enlisted, it must have been a heart-wrenching time for Ruth saying goodbye to her youngest child, not knowing if she would ever see him again. Alick, though, was a faithful correspondent and he wrote home regularly to his widowed mother – twenty-two beautifully written letters over just nine months, always signed, “Your affectionate son, Alex.” Ruth treasured those letters until she died in 1936 and they remain much valued family keepsakes to this day. Two of those letters are transcribed below.

In August 1915, Alick answered the call to serve his country and enlisted in the AIF. Shortly thereafter he embarked for Egypt and later for France. He was reported as missing in action on 19 July 1916, less than a year after joining the AIF.

His name appeared on the German Death List and in March 1917 his identity disc was returned by the Germans. In late March 1917, Ruth was advised as next of kin that Private Alexander Clingan had been killed in action.

Official notifications as to Alick’s fate were brief and to the point. The telegram dated 30 August 1916 to Mrs R Clingan, 31 Union Street Newtown stated:

While the telegram dated 2nd April 1917 to Rev. Dinning, Alice Street, Newtown stated:

Information from the Red Cross was slightly more detailed but it was clear that no one was sure of the full circumstances of his death. The letter from the Australian Red Cross Society to Ruth dated 10 March 1917 said:

Ruth herself wrote in 1921:

Ruth, never knew the details of her son’s fate and was said to have gone to the waterfront to meet every troopship returning to Sydney, hoping against hope to see her beloved son again. We can but imagine her sadness, pain of loss and disappointment, day after day.

In later years, family members also recall Alick’s sister, Ethel McDonald (nee Clingan) and her daughter, Thelma telling stories about Alick. Ethel was very proud of her brother and his achievements in life, including his sporting prowess. She would reminisce about him going to school at Newtown and playing football with the Newtown Bluebags. A number of his footballing team mates also enlisted including Herbert (Nutsy) Bolt, who not only went to school at Newtown and played for the Bluebags but was also killed at Fromelles.

In 2010, news had spread of the Army’s request for the DNA of family members who believed their loved ones had died at Fromelles, France. Four members of the extended family, two from the male line and two from the female line were sent DNA kits.

On 16 March 2010, they received phone calls from the Army to tell them the wonderful news that the family’s DNA was a positive match with the DNA taken from the remains of Alexander Stanley Clingan. Alick was one of the first Australian soldiers to be positively identified. The joy amongst the immediate and extended family had to be seen to be believed - Alexander, lost for almost a century, had now been found!

Nine members of the family attended the Commemorative Ceremony of the new Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery at Fromelles on 19 July 2010, exactly 94 years to the day the Battle of Fromelles took place. It was the first cemetery built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 50 years.

Ethel’s great-grandson, Peter, came with his mother, Gwenda, to represent his father, grandmother and great-grandmother. It was an emotional, yet wonderful day and Gwenda, recalls, “I remember Alexander’s face being projected onto the large screen as we waited for the Ceremony to begin. One of our family members, Margaret (Clingan) Wright OAM, spoke some wonderful words about Alexander as we watched on proudly.”

Gwenda also recalled her excitement a few days earlier in London when she had unexpectedly spotted Alexander’s picture as part of a Fromelles exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. She just had to snap a picture of her son Peter beside Alexander’s photo!

At Fromelles, the Duke of Kent opened the ceremony and dignitaries included Prince Charles, Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall, our Australian Governor General, Quentin Bryce, and members of the French, British and Australian Army.

Soon, participants could hear the clippety clop of horses’ hooves along the road outside the cemetery. On the screens, everyone could see a horse-drawn First World War wagon arriving with the coffin of an unknown soldier. Six Australian Army soldiers carried in the coffin of the last soldier who was to be buried during the ceremony.

After the formal dedication and tributes were completed and the French, British and Australian national anthems were sung, the burial service took place. The firing party fired three volleys and the trumpeter played the Last Post, followed by a one-minute silence and then Reveille. A WW1 aircraft flew overhead and then dignitaries laid wreaths at the Cross of Sacrifice Memorial. The words spoken by Governor General Quentin Bryce during the service truly touched the hearts of all:

At the end of the Commemorative Ceremony, the dignitaries departed as gardeners who worked on the cemetery formed a Guard of Honour and the Minden Band of the Queen’s Division of the British Army played a medley of First World War tunes.

During the afternoon, Prince Charles, his wife, Camilla, and Quentin Bryce, met with two members of each of the families of the soldiers. Joan Hampson (nee Stockton) and Robyn Hanna represented the Clingan family at this informal gathering.

At three o’clock, family members were seated near the graves of their loved ones in the cemetery. We were addressed by Army personnel and the Governor General, Quentin Bryce. She spoke with such feeling and identified with us and our deep emotions, both of sadness and joy, as we gathered together around the graves of our loved ones.

Then the moment came when families were able to go to their soldier’s graveside. What a moment that was. Each family of an identified soldier was given the opportunity to have their own service with an Army chaplain at the graveside. At our service for Alexander, we discovered that the Army chaplain conducting the service had also been the chaplain at Alexander’s burial and she spoke as if she knew Alexander personally. She had clearly been touched by his story. During his burial service, she had read the 23rd Psalm and so she said that she would like to read it with us together as a family. She read other scriptures and prayed and said the blessing. It was a very moving and emotional time.

As family member, Robyn Hanna, later said:

Another cousin, Colonel Scott Clingan who was in the Australian Army based in France once said, “Everyone who served and died deserves to be remembered.”

And so, he is remembered - Alexander Stanley Clingan, greatly loved and never forgotten. In God’s care.

This letter was written on an embroidered Letter Card with the words