Informal portrait of QX6010 Captain, later Lieutenant-Colonel, Joseph Henry Byrne of Redbank, ...

Informal portrait of QX6010 Captain, later Lieutenant-Colonel, Joseph Henry Byrne of Redbank, Queensland. Spending seven years in the 5th Field Brigade, Australian Field Artillery before the Second World War, Byrne was already a Lieutenant with the 2/1st Anti Tank Regiment when the second AIF was formed in 1939. He was the commanding officer of B Company of the 2/31st Battalion, then known as the 70th Battalion, based Britain. After a promotion to Major in July 1941, Byrne became the commanding officer of the 7th Australian Infantry Training Brigade based in the Middle East. In 1943 he rejoined the 2/31st Battalion in Australia as its commanding officer of the 2/31st Battalion, after the battalion had taken part in the invasion of Syria in 1942, and was a garrison force in Lebanon. The 2/31st Battalion had made its way back to Australia in early 1942 in preparation for its deployment to the Pacific Theatre, where it fought along the Kokoda Track in November. After a promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel, Byrne was transferred to the 2/42nd Battalion, where he commanded it during the battles of Bougainville in December 1944. For his services during the Pacific campaign, Lieutenant-Colonel Byrne was Mentioned in despatches (MID) in 1946. After being discharged from the AIF in November 1945, Byrne returned to the Artillery Corps to command the 3rd Composite Anti Aircraft Regiment, and later, the 3rd Light Anti Aircraft/Search Light Regiment. Lieutenant-Colonel Byrne ended his military career in the Reserve of Officers sometime in the 1950s.