1914-15 Star : Private A B Christie (A Delaney), 14 Battalion, AIF

1914-15 Star. Impressed reverse with recipient's details.

Alfred Bembrick Christie was born in Sydney on 17 June 1896, the eldest child of Alexander Campbell Christie and his wife Dorothy.

Aged eighteen, Christie was keen to enlist on the outbreak of war in 1914, but his mother refused to give consent for her underage son to join the AIF. As a result Christie left home, taking a steamer to Melbourne, where he enlisted under the fictitious name of Alfred Delaney in October 1914, naming his place of birth as India, and his next of kin as his 'father' Frank Delaney. He also stated that he was twenty years old and had an 'F Delaney' sign consent for him to enlist.

Private Alfred Delaney/Christie was allocated the service number 1520, which was altered after his initial training to 1583 when he was assigned to the 3rd reinforcements to the 14th Battalion. He sailed with them to Egypt aboard SS Runic, in February 1915.

The 14th Battalion landed at Gallipoli on the afternoon of 26 April 1915 and took up positions on the Second Ridge in the localities of Quinn's and Courtney's Posts. Delaney/Christie was reported to have been killed in action on either 1 or 2 May 1915. An Australian Red Cross report suggested that he had been killed during a charge on Dead Man's Ridge, but the battalion was at Courtney's Post of both these days and it is likely that he was killed near this position. He was buried at Monash Valley by the battalion's chaplain, Andrew Gillison, on 11 May. After the war, Christie was reinterred in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery.

• British War Medal 1914-20 : Private A Delaney (A B Christie), 14 Battalion, AIF