Patrick James Shelton

SHELTON, Patrick James- – – – SPC 1906-1907

DoB:- – 1884, Creswick, VIC

Father:- – John Shelton

Mother:- – Ellen, nee Shaw

Patrick Shelton was a boarder at the College.

Service No:- 3905

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – 46th Battalion

Patrick Shelton enlisted in the AIF on 12 July 1915. He was 30 years and six months old, five feet, ten and a half inches tall, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. He gave his occupation as labourer.

He embarked from Melbourne on the Ceramic on 23 November 1915. On 4 March 1916 he was transferred from the 14th to the 46th Battalion. He proceeded overseas from England to France.

He was wounded in action on 30 August 1916 in France, and later died of his wounds while being taken from the front line trenches to the Field Ambulance. The Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry file provides some eye witness reports about what happened to Private Shelton:

-‘-¦ I know Pte Shelton very well. His arm was blown off in front of Pozieres, and he was taken to the advance dressing station and died there -¦’

-‘-¦ He was badly wounded to the right of Mouquet Farm, while in the front line, on August 30th, by a shell. One of his arms were blown off. He was very game and reckoned nothing was wrong with him. He sat down in a dug out after being wounded. That is the last time I saw him -¦’

-‘-¦ Shelton, we always called him Paddy, had his arm blown off -¦’

-‘-¦ I was with Shelton when his arm was blown off at midnight. He was taken to a Dressing Station near, where he bled to death next morning -¦’

He was 32 years old at the time of his death. Patrick James Shelton is remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.