Studio portrait of 623 Private (Pte) William Joseph Cullen, 31st Battalion

Studio portrait of 623 Private (Pte) William Joseph Cullen, 31st Battalion, from Brunswick, Victoria. An 18 year old stove fitter prior to enlistment on 14 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with C Company from Melbourne on 9 November 1915 aboard HMAT Wandilla. He was killed in action at Fromelles, France on 19 July 1916. After the war his grave could not be located and he was commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, France. In 2008 a burial ground was located at Pheasant Wood, France containing the bodies of 250 British and Australian soldiers including Pte Cullen. 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 Cullen, 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. (Donor J Macneil & family)