Pte Malcolm Rankin (Lilydale), 21^st Battalion: Following the Germans as they withdraw from Bapaume, he is killed in action near Fremincourt. One fellow soldier, Private W Byrne of the 21^st Battalion, was a witness to what happened to him – ‘About two o’clock on the morning of March 20^th, we were formed up and went marching away for more fighting, and by jingo we got it. We went past Fremincourt about daylight, and were told we were to be relieved at three o’clock. Well we started off, and at about seven we were in sight of the town we were to take. The Germans let us get on a lovely flat and then opened up on us. Men were falling everywhere. Malcolm Rankin fell not far from me. It lasted until about eleven, there was not many of the boys left at three o’clock and the town had not been captured either’. He is 35 years old and is remembered on the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.

Pte John Fitzgerald (Lilydale), 21^st Battalion: Is evacuated from the field to hospital in France suffering from influenza.