Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 983 Private (Pte) Henry Victor Willis, 31st Battalion, from Alberton, Victoria. A 20 year old farm labourer prior to enlistment on 14 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with D Company from Melbourne aboard either HMAT Bakara on 5 November 1915 or HMAT Wandilla on 9 November 1915. He was killed in action on 19-20 July 1916 at Fromelles, France. After the war his grave could not be located and he was commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles. In 2008 a burial ground was located at Pheasant Wood, France containing the bodies of 250 British and Australian soldiers including Pte Willis. All of the remains were reburied in the newly created Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery. At the time of the official dedication of the new cemetery on 19 July 2010, ninety-six of the Australians, including Pte Willis, had been identified through a combination of anthropological, archaeological, historical and DNA information. Work is continuing on identifying the other remains relocated from the burial ground and buried in the new cemetery as unknown soldiers. His brother, Pte David Geoffrey Willis, 62nd Company, died at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne on 26 August 1916.