Studio portrait of 702 Private (Pte) Norman Arthur Hale, 31st Battalion from West Melbourne, ...

Studio portrait of 702 Private (Pte) Norman Arthur Hale, 31st Battalion from West Melbourne, Victoria. A 20 year old instrument maker prior to enlisting on 17 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with C Company from Melbourne on 9 November 1915 aboard HMAT Wandilla. He was killed in action near Fromelles on 21 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 Hale. 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 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. Pte Hale is among those who have not been identified and his name remains on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial.