Year of birth: 1893

Place of birth: Dangar Village, Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia

Profession: Labourer

Country: Australia

Force: Australian Imperial Force

Rank: Lance Serjeant

Service number: 16

Enlistment date: 13/01/1916

Enlistment place: Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia

Units:  —  Australian Infantry, 34th Bn.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 12/10/1917

Place of death: Seine, Zonnebeke, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 24

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Lance Sergeant John (Jake) Bloomfield was part of the 34th Battalion Australian Infantry, 9th Australian Brigade, 3rd Australian Division. His battalion took part in the First Battle of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. The 3rd Australian Division attacked at 5.25 a.m. The 34th Battalion Australian Infantry advanced but heavy shelling on the jump-off line brought confusion. The first and second objective were reached but the attack did not have enough force to consolidate the gains. As a result they were forced to retire almost back to their start line after 3 p.m. Lance Sergeant John Bloomfield’s body was found between Seine house and Tyne cot. (D16.d.7.8.), behind the jump-off line. Most witnesses in the Red Cross file report him being struck by a shell, killing him and other men around him. Most say he and the others were buried not far from a structure (pillbox or concrete dugout) and the grave marked with a rifle. His first grave was located in the Flandern I Stellung, a German bunker line. There is confusion about the date and time of his death, but one witness named a Private called Alexander Michael (service number 832) to be one of the men killed by the same shell. This man was reported to have been killed on the 13th of October 1917. This, together with other witness accounts, make it most likely that Lance Sergeant Jack Bloomfield was killed on the night between the 12th and the 13th, while consolidating the new frontline after the attack.

34th Australian Infantry Battalion, (Australian War Memorial, Campbell (AWM), AWM4 23/51/12). https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1338583 Sources used

Beaver E. and Meldrum J.W.G, A Short History of the 34th Battalion, AIF, (Carlton, Illawarra Press, 1957), p 22-25. Sources used

First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, (National Archives of Australia, Canberra (NAA), B2455, BLOOMFIELD J). https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/NameSearch.aspx Sources used

McCarthy Chris, Passchendaele : The Day-by-Day account, (London, Uniform, 2018), p 128-131. Sources used

Photograph https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/293324 Sources used

Red Cross Wounded and Missing File and Embarkation Roll https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search?query=Bloomfield+16 Sources used

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/461966

Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=d71f4325-4427-4277-b014-4f45130319a0

Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/7362375

The AIF Project (UNSW Canberra) https://aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=25400