Private Ernest John Mannell 3rd Battalion

Studio portrait of 3145 Private (Pte) Ernest John Mannell, 3rd Battalion, of Lakemba, NSW. This photograph was taken during his four years of service with the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. During this period he served with the Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) in German New Guinea shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. He then enlisted in the AIF on 13 August 1915. Pte Mannell embarked with the 7th Reinforcements, 18th Battalion at Sydney aboard HMAT Suevic (A29) on 20 December 1915. He then served as a runner with the 3rd Battalion's 'B' Company from February 1916, and on 28 February 1917, he and another runner, 117 Pte Daniel William Dignam, were both declared missing. Information subsequently gathered by the Red Cross Society indicated that Pte Mannell had been killed in action, and Pte Dignam had been taken prisoner by the Germans. Pte Mannell has no known grave; his name is recorded on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France.