Studio portrait of 3168 Private (Pte) Alexander Stanley Clingan (name incorrectly printed beneath ...

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Accession Number P05301.032
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Photomechanical print
Maker Sydney Mail
Place made Australia: New South Wales
Date made c 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Studio portrait of 3168 Private (Pte) Alexander Stanley Clingan (name incorrectly printed beneath image as Clingaw), 53rd Battalion, from Newtown, NSW. A boilermaker's labourer prior to enlisting on 8 August 1915, Pte Clingan embarked from Sydney, NSW, aboard HMAT Warilda on 8 October 1915. Initially reported "Missing in action", his identity disc was sent from Germany in February 1917, following the publication of his name in a German newspaper death list on 4 November 1916 (quoted on his Red Cross file). His status was revised to "killed in action" at Fleurbaix, France, on 19 July 1916, aged 22. In 2008 a burial ground was located at Pheasant Wood containing the bodies of 250 British and Australian soldiers including Pte Clingan. All of the remains were reburied in the newly created Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery. At the time of the official dedication of the new cemetery on 19 July 2010, ninety-six of the Australians, including Pte Clingan, had been identified through a combination of anthropological, archaeological, historical and DNA information. Work is continuing on identifying the other remains relocated from the burial ground and buried in the new cemetery as unknown soldiers.