Studio portrait of brothers 2164 Private (Pte) Victor Cuckson, 8th Battalion, from West ...

Place Europe: France, Nord Pas de Calais, Nord, Lille, Fromelles, Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery
Accession Number P07551.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Digital print
Maker Unknown
Place made Egypt
Date made 1916
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 brothers 2164 Private (Pte) Victor Cuckson, 8th Battalion, from West Melbourne, Victoria (seated) and 3032 Pte William Joseph Cuckson, 2nd Battalion, from Summer Hill, NSW (standing). A 26 year old labourer before enlisting in July 1915, Pte William Cuckson left Australia for Egypt with the 10th Reinforcements from Sydney on 8 October 1915 aboard HMAT Warilda. He transferred to the 54th Battalion before arriving in France for service on the Western Front in June 1916. Pte William Cuckson was killed during the 54th Battalion's attack on German positions at Fromelles on the night of 19/20th July 1916. 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 Cuckson. 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 Cuckson 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. His brother Pte Victor Cuckson survived the war, and returned to Australia in March 1919.