Australians who served in British Army added to Commemorative Roll

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Lieutenant William Malcolm Chisholm and Captain Charles Antoine De Guerry Dalglish have been honoured with their names added to the Australian War Memorial’s Commemorative Roll today.

The Australians served in the British Army in the First World War and died fighting in some of the earliest battles fought on the Western Front in 1914.

Based on the available evidence, Lieutenant Chisholm may well be the first Australian killed in the First World War — although he was serving in a British uniform.

Lieutenant Chisholm was mortally wounded in the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, just three days after arriving in France, and died the next day, aged 22.

The first Australian uniformed troops to be killed were members of the Australian and Naval Military Expeditionary Force. They died at Bita Plaka in German New Guinea on 11 September 1914. 

The Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, said the Memorial was approached recently regarding the possible eligibility of Lieutenant Chisholm for the Commemorative Roll, which was developed through appeals to the public for nominations supported by evidence.

“Until now, Lieutenant Chisholm had not been nominated for inclusion. Once we were alerted to his service and sacrifice, we followed the process of collecting the required supportive evidence,” Dr Nelson said.

“His name has been added today, along with that of Captain Charles Dalglish, who was also killed in one of the war’s opening battles. The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the service and sacrifice of Lieutenant William Malcolm Chisholm and Captain Charles Dalglish.” 

Lieutenant Chisholm was born in Sydney in 1892, the eldest son of an eminent surgeon. He attended Sydney Grammar School and was commissioned in the New South Wales Scottish Rifles before his family moved to England in 1910.  He was accepted into the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1911. Two years later he was gazetted into the 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, and embarked for France in August 1914.

Captain Charles Antoine De Guerry Dalglish, 1st Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), was born in Goulburn, NSW, in 1883. He served with the regiment in the Boer War, and was later killed in the fighting for the French village of Soblonnières on 8 September 1914.

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