Studio portrait of 3803 Private (Pte) Joseph Clement Earls, 27th Battalion. A telegraph linesman ...

Studio portrait of 3803 Private (Pte) Joseph Clement Earls, 27th Battalion. A telegraph linesman from Callington, South Australia, prior to enlistment, he embarked with the 9th Reinforcements from Adelaide on 7 February 1916 aboard HMAT Miltiades for Suez. In early April he was transferred to the 50th Battalion which relocated to the Western Front by mid-June 1916. Pte Earls was wounded in action near Albert on 15 August 1916, died of these wounds later that day and is buried in the Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension, France. He was aged 27 years. His younger brother, 4109 Pte Frederick Burnett Earls, 27th Battalion, was killed in action near Montauban on 5 November 1916. He was aged 21 years. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. His youngest brother, 3804 Pte Edward Leo Earls, 32nd Battalion, enlisted in August 1916, was wounded in action a year later and returned to Australia for discharge in August 1919 medically unfit. These brothers had three cousins, also from Callington, South Australia, 3804 Pte Joseph James Earls, 27th Battalion later 50th Battalion, 3803 Pte John Vincent Earls, 32nd Battalion and 4412 Pte Francis Phillip Earls, 27th Battalion. Pte Joseph Earls was killed in action near Noreuil, France, on 2 April 1917. He was aged 31 years. Pte Francis Earls was killed in action near Montauban on 5 November 1916. He was aged 20 years. He also has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.