Studio portrait of 1462 Private (Pte) Marshall Trigellis Fox, 11th Battalion of Subacio, WA ...

Studio portrait of 1462 Private (Pte) Marshall Trigellis Fox, 11th Battalion of Subacio, WA (left) and 1504 Pte (later Lance Corporal) John Shaw Anderson, 11th Battalion of Fremantle, WA (right). Pte Fox and Pte Anderson were friends and prefects of the Perth Modern School before they enlisted in January 1915. Fox had qualified for admission to university, and Anderson had qualified to study as an accountant. Although they enlisted seperately and were in separate reinforcement groups, the pair met up and left Australia for Egypt on the same troop transport in February 1915. According to the Perth Modern School newspaper 'The Sphinx', Fox's departure was premature, owing to the serious illness of one of the other men: "His departure was so sudden that he was unable to come up to the school to say good-bye. 'I don't want you to think that I am one of those fellows', he wrote to the Head Master, 'who get all they can from the school and then let it pass away completely out of their mind". Arriving on Gallipoli in May 1915, both Fox and Anderson were killed during the 11th Battalion's attack on Tasmania Post on 1 August 1915. According to the school newspaper "It was later still that we heard that the two friends had died together, the one succouring the other as he fell". Later correspondence received by the school from a member of the 11th Battalion which read: "I feel particularly sorry for two boys who had just left the Modern School who I am sure, had great careers before them...They died side by side, the second one while looking at the first one's wounds. All who know say the same as I do, that they feel sorrier over their loss than anybody else's". Both Anderson and Fox were aged 19.

• Informal portrait of FV10 Sub Lieutenant Edward 'Ted' Thomas, Royal Australian Navy (left) and ...