Studio portrait of 792 Private William Allan Irwin DCM, 33rd Battalion

Hand-coloured studio portrait of an Aboriginal serviceman, 792 Private (Pte) William Allan (Bill) Irwin, of Coonabarabran, NSW. Bill Irwin was 37 and gave his occupation as shearer when he enlisted in the 33rd Battalion at Narrabri, NSW on 3 January 1916. He embarked at Sydney on 4 May 1916, and after a brief period training in England, embarked with the 33rd Battalion for France on 14 November 1916. During the fighting in Belgium and France, Pte Irwin was wounded three times. On 7 June 1917 he suffered a gun-shot wound to his buttock and on 4 April 1918 he was wounded in the arm. On 31 August 1918, the 33rd Battalion was attacking German positions at Road Wood, just south of Marrières Wood near Bouchavesnes, when German machine gunners had the battalion pinned down and stopped the advance. "A private, George Cartwright, stood up and from the shoulder fired at the troublesome German gunner and then walking forward shot him and the two men who took his place. Next, covering his run by exploding a bomb short of the trench, he rushed the gun and captured nine Germans. The 33rd stood up and cheered him. Pte Irwin, an Australian half-caste, after attacking like Cartwright, was mortally wounded." (Bean, 1942, p 819) For this action Pte George Cartwright was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) and Pte Irwin the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM). Pte William Irwin is the only Aboriginal identified by CEW Bean in the Australian official history of the First World War. He is buried in the Daours Communal Cemetery, near Corbie, France. An inquiry in 1919 by the NSW Police trying to determine Pte Irwin's next-of-kin, requested by the Army, revealed his father was William Allan and his mother Eliza Griffin. Not married, the couple adopted the surname Irwin from an uncle; their three sons also carried this name. The surviving two sons later adopted the surname Grose. Quote from; CEW Bean, The Australian Imperial Force in France during the allied offensive 1918, volume IV, The AIF in France 1918, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1942, page 819.