Daniel Michael Lawlor (called Michael, but nicknamed Fogg) was born 26 August 1886 in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of John Patrick Lawlor and Johanna (Joanna) Kelly. His parents were originally from Kilkenny, Ireland - John Patrick was born in Ballyfoyle in 1845 and Johanna in Dunmore in 1856. The couple married in Ireland in 1873 and in1878 they emigrated to Australia on the ship Camperdown,accompanied by their two children, Mary and Martin. A third child, Margaret, was born during the passage, but she died at sea on 13 March.

The family surname appeares in records under several spellings — Lalor, Lawlor and Lawler — reflecting both Irish and Australian variations.

Michael was the seventh child in a family of twelve children. His siblings were:

They lived at 122 Gray Street, Adelaide, which remained the family home for decades. Among family and friends, Michael was known by the nickname “Fogg”, though in service records and correspondence he was always listed as Daniel or D.M. Lawlor. Thechildren attended the Sisters of St. Joseph’s School in Pirie Street, Adelaide, founded by the then Mary McKillop and Sisters. After his schooling, Michael joined his father as a tailor’s presser with D. & W. Murray’s, a firm of drapers established in Adelaide, South Australia in the 1860s, a firm which went international.

Their multi-story building was in Gawler Place not too far from Gray St. and Pirie St. In April 1915, Michael’s father John died suddenly near Imperial Dam, Broken Hill, likely cause, heart disease. His death left Johanna a widow with a grown-up family still living at home. However, based on comments in the inquest for his death, John may have been separated from the family for some time.

On 21 July 1915, Michael enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Keswick, South Australia and was assigned to A Company of the newly formed 32nd Battalion. He was 28 years old. The 32nd Battalion was raised in August 1915, drawing half its men from South Australia and half from Western Australia as part of the 8th Brigade, 5th Division. There was much fanfare about this new battalion in South Australia, with gatherings, community support, such as the Cheer-up Society and reviews of the troops by the Premier. The South Australians began their training at Mitcham Camp near Adelaide.

The men from WA who had been at the Blackboy Hill Camp near Perth arrived in Adelaide at the end of September and the whole battalion was assembled at the Cheltenham Racecourse Camp.

Training continued until the battalion departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915, with the unit being split between two troop ships HMAT A2 Geelong and HMAT A13 Katuna. Michael was on the Geelong

As reported in The Adelaide Register:

On embarkation day, Michael signed his pay allotment to direct four shillings a day home to his mother Johanna and keeping one shilling as his pay.

The 32nd arrived in Suez on 14 December 1915 and moved to El Ferdan just before Christmas. A month later they marched to Ismailia and then to the major camp at Tel-el-Kebir where they stayed for February and most of March. Tel-el-Kebir was about 110 km northeast of Cairo and the 40,000 men in the camp were comprised of Gallipoli veterans and the thousands of reinforcements arriving regularly from Australia. Their next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then at Ferry Post until the end of May where they trained and guarded the Suez Canal. Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar.

Theodor Pflaum’s (No. 327, 32nd) diary complained of being “sick up to the neck of heat and flies”, of the scarcity of water during their long marches through the sand and he described some of the food as “dog biscuits and bully beef”. He did go on to mention good times as well with swims, mail from home, visiting the local sights and the like. Source AWM C2081789 Diary of Theodor Milton PFLAUM 1915-16, page 29, page 12

In June 1916 the 32nd Battalion left Egypt to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, departing Alexandria on 17 June aboard the Ship Transylvania and arriving in Marseilles on 23 June They then immediately entrained for a three-day train trip to Steenbecque. Their route took them to a station just out of Paris, within sight of the Eiffel Tower, through Boulogne and Calais, with a view of the English Channel, before disembarking and marching to their camp at Morbecque, about 30 kilometres from Fleurbaix. Theodor Pflaum and Wesley Choat (No. 68, 32nd) wrote about the trip:

They were headed to the area of Fleurbaix in northern France which was known as the ‘Nursery Sector’ – a supposedly relatively quiet area where inexperienced Allied troops could learn the harsh realities of Western Front trench warfare against the Germans. But the quiet times did not last long. Their first spell in the line was in the Bois Grenier sector. Private (later Lieutenant) Frederick Stolz recalled the approach to the trenches in very positive light in a letter to home:

The battalion moved into the front area on 14 July and occupied the trenches for the first time on 16 July.

D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letters home were optimistic for the coming battle:

On the 17th they were reconnoitering the trenches and cutting passages through the wires, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The Australian 8th Brigade, which included the 32nd Battalion, were to cross about 100 metres of No-Man’s-Land and assault the German trenches on the left flank of the Allied attack.

Being on the extreme left flank made their job made even more difficult, as, not only did they have to protect themselves from the front, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left while advancing in order to prevent the Germans from coming around behind them. Lieutenant Frederick Stolz described the calm before the storm:

Michael wrote to his mother for the last time on 18 July. The Zero Hour for advancing from their front-line trenches was to be 5.45 PM, but the Germans knew this attack was coming and were well-prepared. They opened a massive artillery bombardment on the Australians at 5.15 PM, causing chaos and many casualties. All were in position by 5.45 PM and the charge over the parapet began at 5.53 PM. C Company and A Company, Michael’s company, were the first and second waves to go, B & D the third and fourth. The first waves did not immediately charge the German lines, they went out into No-Man’s-Land and laid down, waiting for the British bombardment to lift.

At 6.00 PM, the German lines were rushed. The Australians immediately suffered heavy casualties from the artillery and German rifle and machine gun fire. The 32nd were successful in their initial assaults and by 6.30 PM were in control of the German’s 1st line system (map, Trench B), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

Unfortunately, with the success of their attack, ‘friendly’ artillery fire caused a large number of casualties because the artillery observers were unable to confirm the position of the Australian gains. The 32nd were able to take out a German machine gun in their early advances, but were being “seriously enfiladed” from their left flank.

By 8.30 PM their left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind them from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides. At 4.00 AM the Germans began an attack from the Australian’s left flank. Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, their rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to be in a position to surround the soldiers of the 32nd.

At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties:

What was left of the 32nd had finally withdrawn by 7.30 AM on the 20th. The initial roll call count was devastating – 71 killed, 375 wounded and 219 missing. Michael was among the missing. The final impact was that 225 soldiers of the 32nd Battalion were killed or died from wounds sustained at the battle and, of this, 166 were unidentified. Lieutenant Sam Mills survived the battle. In his letters home, he recalls the bravery of the men:

With about 85% of the 32nd Battalion having been killed, wounded or taken prisoner, there was much confusion and great difficulty in working out what had happened to each man. Major efforts were undertaken to find the missing soldiers, but often weeks and months passed with no answers, only uncertainty. For months Michael’s family heard nothing more than that his name was on the casualty list. His mother, Johanna, wrote to the Army on 16 November seeking news about Michael. They did reply on the 23rd that “everything possible is being done” and she would be promptly notified as something was available.

Shortly after this, some news did start to appear. The 32nd had been in the advanced area of the attack and this is where Michael was could have been either captured or killed. His name came through German channels to the Australian Red Cross 29 November – “the above name appears on a German list dated 4-11-1916”. His presence on the German "Totenliste" meant his ID tag had been recoverd by the Germans.

Source: Red Cross Wounded and Missing File – Daniel Michakl Lawlor pg 2

While a “German list ” usually is used to describe a “German Death List” (and there was a 4 November German Death List) but ‘death’ was not on Michael’s record. The records of the South Australian Red Cross do have a handwritten ‘Death’ inserted on the 29 November telex. Possilby just a admin error, but it may have created some confusion at the time.
However, as there was no record Michael having been buried, he remained “unofficially” a Prisoner of War and Johanna was notified. But nothing more followed, so Johanna then wrote to the Australian High Commissioner in London on 15 April 1917:

However, he still remained “missing”.

In 2008, archaeologists began excavating a mass grave at Pheasant Wood, not far from the advanced lines that the 32nd would had gotten to. The grave contained the remains of 250 soldiers the Germans had collected and buried after the battle. The Unrecovered War Casualties Army department organsied DNA testing of these soldiers and found thousands of potential relatives to donate DNA, seeking matches to be able to identify the soldiers. Finally,

Michael was “found”. On 19 July 2010, the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, the dedication ceremony for the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery was held. By that time, 96 of the 250 soldiers from the mass grave had been successfully identfied, including Michael. The dedication cermony was attended by Prince Charles and Australian Governor General Quentin Bryce.

General David Hurley spoke for many when he said:

Today, Michael rests under his own name in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery, Plot II, Row D, Grave 10. His family chose the inscription:

The identification effort has continued with Fromelles Association of Australia efforts and Army support and, to date (2026), DNA donations from family members have allowed a total of 181 of the 250 soldiers in this grave to be identified, including 41 of the 166 missing soldiers from the 32nd Battalion.

Lest we forget.