"This was taken in Brussells [sic] at night-time and was finished in half an hour. The boys names ...

"This was taken in Brussells [sic] at night-time and was finished in half an hour. The boys names are, sitting; Darkie Smith, 9th Batn. Standing on my right is Alex Smythe 10th M.G.C. Both of these boys are here on the Graves Services". Caption written by 58845 Private (Pte) Arthur Ralph Snowball on the verso of a group portrait of members of the Australian Graves Detachment following the war. Identified are 559 Pte Alexander Cross Smyth, 10th Machine Gun Company (standing left); 58845 Pte Snowball, 35th Battalion (standing right) and 6524 (Pte) Edward "Darkie" Smith, 9th Battalion (seated). The men served with the Graves Detachment in France. Pte Smith was an Indigenous serviceman who was working as a labourer in Homestead, Queensland, prior to enlistment. On his application to enlist he claimed he was a Maori, born in Taranaki, New Zealand, and gave no next of kin. A medical history document on his service record indicates he was born in Rockhampton, Queensland. In May 1917 while serving with the 9th Battalion he received a gunshot wound to the head, resulting in a fractured skull. Following a period of seven weeks in hospital he returned to his unit. Pte Smith did not return to Australia until 1922. Pte Snowball had returned in 1920 and Pte Smyth in 1921.