A hand coloured portrait of 1702 Sergeant Bertrand Innes (Bert) Auchterlonie, 15th Battalion, one ...

A hand coloured portrait of 1702 Sergeant Bertrand Innes (Bert) Auchterlonie, 15th Battalion, one of the three Auchterlonie brothers, from Inglewood Hill, near Gympie, Queensland. Sgt Bertrand Innes Auchterlonie was killed on 8 August 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 21. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. His elder brother, Lieutenant (Lt) Archibald Vivian (Viv) Auchterlonie, 25th Battalion initially served as a sergeant with the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) on Thursday Island in August 1914 before successfully applying for a commission in the AIF in early 1915. He was killed on 20 October, 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 23. The youngest, 1030 Lt Cecil Arthur Auchterlonie, also of the 25th Battalion, served at Gallipoli and was later awarded the Military Cross for actions near Villers Bretonneux in July 1918. He was awarded a Bar to his MC a month later. Lt Cecil Auchterlonie was killed in action on 10 August 1918, aged 22.

The hand-colouring of these portraits contributes to the uncertainty surrounding the identities of the men. The service record of all three Auchterlonie brothers records their brown eyes, a feature misrepresented by the stark blue eyes created by the studio’s hand colouring. Further contradictory visual evidence includes the incorrect colour patches added to their uniforms and the heavy brush-strokes concealing the correct physiognomy of the men. This is exacerbated by the physical disparity of those depicted in these portraits with other portraits of the Auchterlonie brothers held at the Memorial and in private collections. Nevertheless, the portraits were donated to the Memorial by a sister of the men, almost certainly confirming their validity as true, if somewhat distorted representations of them.