Private Alfred Wilkins
- Rank
- Private
- Appointment
- Australian Army 1915 Egypt, Gallipoli
- Service number
- 730
- Unit
- 11 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- Gallipoli, Turkey
- Date of death
- 3 May 1915
- Age
- 32
- Plaque number
- M77A
- Co-located plaques
- M77 - PTE Leopold Gluck
- Dedicated by
- His family on 12 November 2022
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Alfred Wilkins was born in February 1883 at Windsor Berkshire, England to parents John and Jane Wilkins of Vine Cottage, Newtown Windsor. He had three brothers and one sister.
After finishing school, he served a five-year apprenticeship with E Bamfield of Windsor working as a plumber/gas fitter. He also served with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry for 12 years.
Alfred emigrated to Perth, Australia, where he took up employment as a gas fitter with the Trans Australian Railway Company which linked Western Australia to the eastern states.
Alfred enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914 where he conducted his training at Blackboy Hill. He was attached to 11 Battalion as a bugler.
In November 1914 Alfred embarked for overseas service from Fremantle aboard HMAT Ascanius. Disembarking in Egypt where 11 Battalion conducted further training in preparation for the assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915.
Alfred and his battalion proceeded to Gallipoli as part of the Third Brigade and were one of the first battalions to land on the beaches of Gallipoli in the early hours of 25 April 1915.
It was at an attack by 11 Battalion on a position called Gaba Tepe in an attempt to deny the Turks a vantage point overlooking ANZAC Cove. The position was defended by machine guns and a heavy entanglement of barbwire that ran into the sea.
With the attack on Gaba Tepe failing and a decision to withdraw the main body of the attack, Alfred was sent to the left flank with fifteen other men to cover the withdrawal of the wounded. Rushing from sandhill to sandhill and meeting a burst of machine gun fire each time, Alfred was killed by gun fire.
Private Alfred Wilkins, service number 730 of 11 Battalion, was killed in action at Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli on 3 May 1915. He was 33 years of age.
He has no known grave; however, it is recorded that Australians observed Alfred and another casualty were given a proper burial by the Turkish soldiers at Gaba Tepe.
He is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli and on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
His plaque is placed alongside that of Private Leopold Gluck, also of 11 Battalion who died the day before Alfred.