Outdoors portrait of 349 Sergeant (Sgt) Percy Edgar Coltman, 22nd Battalion, of Kew, Vic with his ...

Outdoors portrait of 349 Sergeant (Sgt) Percy Edgar Coltman, 22nd Battalion, of Kew, Vic with his twin daughters Dorothy (left) and Margery (right) and son Selborne (standing). Sgt Coltman had originally enlisted in Sydney in October 1914 as a member of the 13th Battalion (original serial number 801), but for reasons unknown, resigned in Melbourne at Broadmeadows camp in February 1915. He left Australia for Egypt in May 1915 and served on Gallipoli between arriving on the peninsula in September 1915 and being evacuated with an unknown illness in October. In March 1916, Sgt Coltman reverted to the rank of Private (Pte) for "when on active service absenting himself from 1800 24th January 1916 until brought into [Mena] camp [Cairo] under arrest at 1400 4th February 1916". Pte Coltman arrived in France for service on the Western Front in March 1916 and was killed in action during the 22nd Battalion's attack on Pozieres Ridge near Mouquet Farm on 5 August 1916, aged 44. Leaving behind a wife and three children, Pte Coltman has no known grave. He was the older brother of Major Charles Stanley Coltman, MC (Military Cross), who died of pneumonia in Egypt on 6 January 1916.