Studio portrait of 4946 Private (Pte) Arnold Needham, 2nd Battalion from Orange, NSW, formerly of ...

Studio portrait of 4946 Private (Pte) Arnold Needham, 2nd Battalion from Orange, NSW, formerly of Oldham, England. An 18 year old station hand prior to enlisting on 13 January 1916, Pte Needham embarked for overseas with the 15th Reinforcements from Sydney aboard HMAT Star of England (A15) on 8 March 1916. He was transferred to the 54th Battalion in Egypt on 29 April 1916 and arrived in France for service on the Western Front on 29 June 1916. Pte Needham was killed in action on 19 July 1916 at Fleurbaix, France. 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 Needham. 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 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. Pte Needham is among those who have not been identified and his name remains on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial.