Studio portrait of Captain (Capt) Charles Stanley Coltman, 4th Battalion, of Sydney, NSW. The ...

Studio portrait of Captain (Capt) Charles Stanley Coltman, 4th Battalion, of Sydney, NSW. The secretary of the Cooperative Motor Company and the commanding officer of the 25th Battalion of the Senior Cadets before enlisting in August 1914, Capt Coltman had first been commissioned as a Lieutenant (Lt) in 1897 whilst serving with the 3rd Battalion Infantry Brigade (Citizens Military Force) in Ballarat. A veteran of the South African campaign (Boer War), Capt Coltman had first served as a Lt with the Victoria Imperial Rifles in 1900, then as a Capt with the Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1902. He left Australia for Egypt with the 4th Battalion in October 1914, landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and in July 1915 became the 1st Brigade Machine Gun officer. In August 1915, Capt Coltman assumed temporary command of the 1st Battalion, during which time he was recommended for the Military Cross (MC) for "his skill and energy in directing the work of the machine guns during the whole of the Lone Pine action" on 6 August 1915. He was promoted to the rank of Major (Maj) in November 1915, and was admitted to hospital with influenza after returning to Egypt in December 1915. He died of pneumonia on 6 January 1916, aged 38. Maj Coltman was the younger brother of Private Percy Edgar Coltman who was killed at Pozieres on 5 August 1916.