Studio portrait of Captain Eric Winfield Connelly, Headquarters (HQ) 10th Brigade

Studio portrait of Captain (Capt) (later Major) Eric Winfield Connelly, Headquarters (HQ) 10th Brigade, of Bendigo, Vic. Capt Connelly was a Barrister at Law prior to enlisting for service in the First World War. Whilst serving in France, Capt Connelly was promoted to the rank of Major. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 18 April 1918 for 'untiring energy and skill under trying circumstances'. After he was gassed on the morning of 7 June 1917 during an attack on Messines Ridge, and rendered unconscious for eight hours, Major (Maj) Connelly went forward to Battalion HQ and organised a successful attack on the enemy line, returning through intense shell fire in a state of complete exhaustion. The following year, whilst attached to the 3rd Australian Division HQ, Maj Connelly died of wounds in France on 9 September 1918, aged 29 years. Maj Connelly's only brother, Captain Clive Emmerson Connelly, 14th Battalion, had been killed in action on 28 August 1915 at Hill 60 on the Gallipoli Peninsula, aged 30 years.