SERGEANT ALLAN FREDERICK BATH
5TH AUGUST 1916 AGE 25
BURIED: SERRE ROAD CEMETERY NO. 2, SOMME, FRANCE
There is a photograph of Allan Frederick Bath on the Australian War Memorial site. It's estimated that it was taken on or about 15 September 1915, the date I imagine that he first got his uniform. He's standing in a photographer's studio in front of a rather incongruous painted rural backdrop. He looks very young. The War Graves Commission gives his age at death as 25. His father, on the form for the Roll of Honour of Australia, says he was 20. He certainly looks 19 in this photograph rather than the 24 he would have been had the War Graves Commission been right about his age. His father also adds the extra information that after his death two letters were found in his knapsack, one from his captain and one from his major, recommending him for a commission. This, together with his inscription and the fact that he was a sergeant at 20 show his quality.
Bath was killed at Pozieres on the Somme on 5 August 1916. His body was not discovered until March 1929 when it was identified by his disc, a piece of his tobacco pouch inscribed with the initials AB and a fountain pen.