Studio portrait of 4780 Private Francis Robert McInerney, 28th Battalion of Narrogin, Western ...

Accession Number P08503.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Colour - Toned black & white 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 4780 Private Francis Robert McInerney, 28th Battalion of Narrogin, Western Australia. Pte McInerney enlisted on 28 February 1916 and embarked from Fremantle on 17 April 1916 aboard HMAT Aeneas (A60). He was killed in action at Messines on 20 September 1917 aged 22 years. A statement made by his friend 606 LCpl Joe Prater (later MM) in McInerney's Red Cross Missing and Wounded file stated " ...he died as I and my mates were carrying him back to the dressing station. We buried him that night and put a cross up with his name and Battn. on it. We did all that could be done for a comrade. It was a great blow to me as he was one of my mates and in the same company as myself". Pte McInerney's grave was lost in further fighting; he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.