Private John Brodie Bryant

Private John Brodie Bryant (2144, 53rd Battalion) was born in Saltburn, Yorkshire, England, and arrived in Australia as an infant at the age of eight months. John was still a student at Newington College, Stanmore, when he enlisted in February 1916. On 26 September 1917, during the battle of Polygon Wood, John was at the rear of a ration party in the Glencorse Wood when he was hit by a shell and killed instantly. John is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. His mother wrote that he was 17 years of age at the time of his death. John’s brother, Private Stephen Francis Bryant, served with the 1st Machine Gun Company.