Lt Thomas Eales (Lilydale), 21^st Battalion: Early in the morning, during the battle of Ville Sur Ancre, they had taken the town and were starting to move out. One witness to what happened next later stated: ‘After Ville Sur Ancre had been taken and things had quietened down a bit, a party went into the place to ‘clear up’. Eales was leading his platoon in the advance near the right of the village and had got into a sunken road. Eighteen pounder shellfire from our own artillery burst short, just above us, but only three were hit, two men wounded, Eales killed. He put his hands up to his neck and said ‘I’ve got it’. They were the last words he spoke, and he died directly after. He was also hit in the body. He was killed about 6.00am and he was buried near the sunken road’.

He is 22 years old and is buried at the Mericourt L’Abbe Communal Cemetery in France. One soldier who served with him later stated: ‘Lieutenant Eales was very popular and we were awfully sorry when he was killed, he was always considered such a good soldier’.

Cpl Edward Hitchings (Lilydale), 22^nd Battalion: Is wounded in action, shrapnel wound to the face, and is evacuated to hospital in England. The piece of shrapnel entered behind his left ear and out his mouth, fracturing his lower jaw.