Studio portrait of 196 Driver (Dvr) William Bruce Higgins, 30th Battalion, from Gloucester, NSW ...

Studio portrait of 196 Driver (Dvr) William Bruce Higgins, 30th Battalion, from Gloucester, NSW shown wearing a proficiency badge on his right arm for Skill in Horse Driving, the design being crossed whips and spur. A 19 year old grazier prior to enlistment on 2 August 1915, Dvr Higgins embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT Beltana (A72) on 9 November 1915. Dvr Higgins reverted at his own request to a Private (Pte) on 8 May 1916 in Egypt, immediately prior to embarking for France. He was reported missing in action at the Battle of Fromelles on 20 July 1916. According to his Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, Pte Higgins was "well up in the communication trench when a raid was made; they bombarded the Germans and in the counter attack Higgins got further away and was cut off by the Germans and taken prisoner". Later that year, a communication was received from the Germans which included Pte Higgins' identity disc, and a report confirming he had been killed in action at Fromelles. After the war his grave could not be located and he was commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, France. In 2008 a burial ground was located at Pheasant Wood, France containing the bodies of 250 British and Australian soldiers including Pte Higgins. 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 Higgins 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.