Group portrait of seven members of C Company, 32nd Battalion. Back row, left to right: 991 ...

Group portrait of seven members of C Company, 32nd Battalion. Back row, left to right: 991 Private (Pte) Clarence James "Jock" Martin, 973 Pte William Edward Junner, 1015 Pte Ernest John Mellows, and 989 Pte Ernest John Mainstone. Front row, from left: 1064 Pte Forrest Raymont Junner, 1025 Pte Clifford Nicholls Oates, and 913 Pte Allan Wallace Copley. All members embarked from Adelaide on 18 November 1915 aboard HMAT Geelong (A2) for Suez. The battalion relocated to the Western Front, France, during June 1916. Pte Oates, an auctioneer from Victoria Park, Western Australia, prior to enlistment, was reported missing in action at the Battle of Fromelles on 20 July 1916 and was subsequently determined to have been killed in action on that date. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, France. He was aged 23 years. Pte Copley, a stockman from Cottesloe, Western Australia, prior to enlistment, was transferred to the 8th Machine Gun Company on 9 March 1916 and his new unit relocated to the Western Front, France, during June 1916. Pte Copley was initially reported killed in action on 20 July 1916 during the Battle of Fromelles. He was subsequently reported as wounded in action and the British Red Cross Society (Berlin Branch) records that he died of these wounds at Valenciennes, France, on 25 July 1916 while a prisoner of war in German hands. He was aged 22 years. (See P09291.142). The other five members returned to Australia for discharge at dates between December 1918 and June 1919.