Studio portrait of 4384 Acting Corporal (Lance Corporal (L Cpl)) James Herman Breuer, 48th ...

Studio portrait of 4384 Acting Corporal (Lance Corporal (L Cpl)) James Herman Breuer, 48th Battalion, from Midland Junction, Perth, Western Australia. A 21 year old fitter prior to enlisting on 11 October 1915, he had previously been educated at the State School then trained in fitting, turning and mechanical drawing at the Technical School in Perth. He served for three years in the 13th Engineers of the Citizens' Forces where he was promoted Quartermaster. He embarked for overseas as an Acting Corporal with the 13th Reinforcements of the 16th Battalion from Fremantle, Western Australia on 29 January 1916 aboard HMAT Runic. Shortly after arriving in Egypt, he transferred to the 48th Battalion and proceeded with them to France in June 1916. L Cpl Breuer suffered from deafness and also spent some time in hospital in England with severe cellulitis in his left leg. On 12 October 1917 he was killed in action at Passchendaele Ridge, Belgium by a gunshot wound to the head. His companions buried him where he fell however, after the war, his grave could not be located and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, at Ypres, Belgium with others who have no known grave.