Studio portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) Victor Edward Denne MM, 52nd Battalion, of North Bruni Island, ...

Accession Number P07018.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Digital print
Maker Unknown
Date made 1916 - 1917
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 Lieutenant (Lt) Victor Edward Denne MM, 52nd Battalion, of North Bruni Island, Tas. A farmer before enlisting on 20 April 1914, Lt Denne embarked from Hobart on HMAT Geelong on 20 October 1914 with A Company, 12th Battalion, with the service number 131. He participated in the first day of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915. He was evacuated to Egypt in July 1915 with pneumonia. On 4 August 1915 he was promoted to Corporal. He returned to the Gallipoli on 24 August 1915, and remained there until he was evacuated to Malta with jaundice on 4 December 1915. On 7 April 1916 he was taken on strength of the 52nd Battalion. He was awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Mouquet Farm on 4-5 September 1916, when he continued to patrol the trench and manning a detached post in the face of bombardment and enemy attack; the award was gazetted on 9 December 1916. On 20 September 1916, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, and then promoted to Lieutenant on 1 October 1917. He was wounded in action on 18 October 1917, and then for a second time on 5 April 1918. He was evacuated to England, where he died of tubercular meningitis at the London General Hospital, Wandsworth, on 26 May 1918, at the age of 33.