Photograph relating to 7329 Private Milton Alfred Taylor

Studio portrait of Grace Elizabeth Ritchie. One of a series of portraits sent to 7329 Private (Pte) Milton Alfred Taylor, 2nd Battalion, when he was serving on the Western Front. Being under the age of 21, Milton Taylor enlisted on 31 January 1917 without the consent of his father stating his name as “Alfred Milton Taylor”. In Marrickville, immediately prior to embarkation, Pte Taylor met 16 year old Grace Elizabeth Ritchie, the younger sister of a friend 7317 Pte William Palmer Ritchie, and sought permission to correspond with her. It was only a year later, when joining the 2nd Battalion in France on 3 February 1918, that Pte Taylor’s true birthdate was discovered to be 2 February 1900. Being underage, he was immediately transferred to the Australian Corps Working Party for the remainder of the war and returned to Australia in February 1919. 7317 Pte William Palmer Ritchie was killed in action in Belgium on 12 October 1917, aged 19. His sister Grace married Milton Taylor in 1927. See also AWM2016.57.3