Can you help us identify Bryan?

Bryan Humphris was born in Orroroo, South Australia on 20 September 1886, the youngest of 10 children of Henry and Sarah (nee James) Humphris. His paternal grandparents, John and Eliza (nee Bucklow) Humphris, came from Gloucestershire, England, arriving in Adelaide on the Stratheden in February 1850 with five children, including Bryan’s father, Henry, then aged four. They settled on a farm in the McLaren Vale/Willunga area, now renowned for wine grape growing. Bryan had eight older siblings who lived to adulthood:

Bryan’s father, Henry Humphris joined the police force as a mounted trooper in 1865. In 1868, he married Sarah James, the youngest daughter of John James of Willunga and they had ten children over the next eighteen years. As he was gradually promoted, Henry was stationed in towns around country South Australia - Clare, Bordertown, Orroroo, Port Augusta, Melrose and Moonta – before being stationed in Adelaide in 1904. He died in 1905, soon after being promoted to sub-inspector. He was always active and popular in the towns where he was stationed.

Even as 24-year-old trooper, a civic dinner was held in Clare when he was transferred to Bordertown. When he died, he was described as one of the most popular police officers in the state. When news of his death was heard In Port Augusta, a town he had left several years earlier, “flags were hoisted half-mast high over the Town Hall, the Customs House, the shipping, and leading business places.”

Source - "Death of Sub-Inspector Humphris." The Port Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle and Flinders Chronicle, 1 September 1905, p.2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196778511

All of the boys in the family followed their father into various branches of community service and, like him, were posted around the state and were active in their communities. Henry and Richard were railway stationmasters, Gilbert and Cav were with the Post Office and Archie was District Clerk at Naracoorte. Bryan began school in Port Augusta, where he won the prize for Grade 1 students in 1894. He later attended Melrose School.

As a young man, Bryan joined the National Bank, working in branches at Kadina, Moonta, Wilmington, Angaston and from 1914 at Moonta again, but this time as the accountant, one step down from the manager.

Like others in his family, he was active in the communities in which he was living, playing with local tennis, lacrosse, and golf clubs and attending the Anglican church. His successive departures as he was moved around by the bank were reported with regret in local newspapers:

In June 1915, Bryan decided that that it was his duty to enlist. On 25 June he signed his attestation papers in which he named his eldest sister, Mabel, as his next of kin. He passed his medical at Keswick Barracks and reported to the Mitcham Camp on 7 July. On Monday 5 July, before entering camp, he returned to Moonta where a farewell social was held at the Globe Hotel in a room ‘appropriately decorated for the occasion, the Union Jack and the Australian flag being prominent features.’ The speeches and toasts were described at length in the Moonta paper The Peoples Weekly. Bryan, after his ‘acceptance of a wristwatch and a safety razor as small mementoes of the occasion’, responded:

Bryan was assigned to the 32nd Battalion when it was formed at Mitcham Camp in August 1915 and allocated to B Company.

The 32nd Battalion was made up of recruits from South Australia and Western Australia. There was much fanfare about this new battalion in South Australia, with gatherings, community support, Cheer-up Society activities, reviews of the troops by the governor, and parades through the streets of Adelaide. On 16 September, the South Australians members of the Battalion moved to a new camp at Cheltenham Racecourse. The West Australians who had begun their training at Blackboy Hill near Perth joined them at the end of September.

As their departure time approached, the South Australian men in the battalion were given leave to visit their families and often attend community farewell socials. Bryan had already been farewelled in Moonta and while he was in camp, he would have been able to regularly see his sisters, Mabel and Bertha, who lived in Adelaide. So in October, he went to the south-east of South Australia to say goodbye to his brothers, Richard and Cav at Millicent, and Archie at Naracoorte. Although the Embarkation Roll for the 32nd Battalion shows Bryan’s rank as Private, he was promoted to Lance Corporal on 6 November 1915, just twelve days before departure. The 32nd Battalion departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915 on HMAT A2 Geelong.

As reported in The Adelaide Register:

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.

While at Tel-el-Kebir, men were able to make day trips to Cairo. Like thousands of other AIF men, Bryan had his photo taken in front of the sphinx and the pyramids while mounted on a camel. It was probably his sisters, Mabel and Bertha, who sent it on to the Adelaide Critic.

The battalion’s next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then they were at Ferry Post until the end of May, where they trained and guarded the Suez Canal. On 26 May, just before leaving Ferry Post, Bryan was promoted to Corporal. Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar. One soldier’s 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

During their time in Egypt the 32nd had the honour of being inspected by H.R.H. Prince of Wales.

After spending six months in Egypt, the call to support the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front came in mid-June. The 32nd left from Alexandria on the ship Transylvania on 17 June 1916, arriving at Marseilles, France on 23 June 1916 and 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 (No. 327) and Wesley Choat (No. 68), 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. Training continued with a focus on bayonets and the use of gas masks, assuredly with a greater emphasis, given their position near the front. The 32nd moved to the Front on 14 July and Gordon was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

On the 17th they were reconnoitring the trenches and cutting passages through the barbed wire, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letters home were optimistic for the coming battle:

The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The 32nd Battalion’s position was on the extreme left flank, with only 100 metres of No Man’s Land to get the German trenches. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st Battalion on their right. However, their position made the job more difficult, as not only did they have to protect themselves while advancing, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left, to stop them from coming around behind them.

On the morning of the 18th, A Company and C Company went into the trenches to relieve B and D Companies, who rejoined the next day. 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. A Company, along with C Company were in the first and second waves to go over the parapet at 5.53 PM. Bryan’s B Company & D Company were in the third and fourth. The men, despite heavy losses, were successful in the 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. They 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. In the early morning of the 20th, the Germans began a counterattack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map).

Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to regain that trench and envelop the men of the 32nd. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance they could offer was with rifles:

Based on witness statements after the battle, it seems certain that Bryan fought through the night in the German trenches which had been taken by the Australians. When in the early hours of 20 July, it became clear that the Germans were going to re-take these trenches, the surviving men made a desperate retreat to their own lines. Bryan was killed before he reached safety. 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, including Bryan. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large quantity of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield.

The final impact was that 228 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:

Bryan Humphris was killed on the morning of 20 July but has no known grave.

There are two accounts of what happened to Bryan on that night. In mid-September, his sisters, Mabel and Bertha Humphris, received a letter from Bryan’s friend, Lawrence Kelly . He described what he had learnt about Bryan’s death:

A second account was from Ted Jew (539), also from Bryan’s section. He was a student for the Methodist ministry when he enlisted, became a minister after the war and was a fervent pacifist. In a letter to his brother from France, dated 31/12/1916, Ted wrote of the morning of 20 July:

About 85% of the 32nd Battalion were casualties at Fromelles, killed, wounded or taken prisoner. In the immediate aftermath, there was much confusion and great difficulty in working out what had happened to each man. It took several weeks for most families of men who had been killed or were missing to be informed of this. However, on 31 July, ten days after the battle, an unofficial telegram was sent by one of Bryan’s mates from the National Bank, Lawrence Kelly (122) who was a clerk in the 32nd Battalion Orderly Room, a good example of how pre-war mates looked after one another.

It was received from London at the offices of the legal firm of Glynn, Parsons and McEwin where another mate, Bernard Dubois had worked before the war. It had originally been sent on 22 July. It stated that Bryan had been killed, and that Bernard and two others from their friendship group, Edward Wolff and Alan Campbell were also casualties.

How it made its way to London and then to the legal offices in Adelaide is unclear, but it meant that the Humphris, Dubois, Wolff and Campbell families were made aware of what happened to their sons during the battle much earlier than the families of other casualties. The information was correct, although it did not become official for several weeks (and the Humphris family was, in the meantime, incorrectly informed by the military that he had been wounded.)

Bryan’s sisters, Mabel and Bertha, who shared a home in Kent Town were quickly informed of the cable sent by Lawrence Kelly. They immediately accepted that their youngest brother had been killed. The cable had been received in Adelaide at 2.11pm, it had to get to the legal office and then the sisters informed of its details. But there was still time for the announcement of his death to appear in the Adelaide ‘Journal’ the next day. Bryan was the first 32nd Battalion man killed during the battle to have his death announced in Adelaide newspapers.

Over the next few days Bryan’s death in action was reported in all Adelaide newspapers, together with biographic details, and in country newspapers in Moonta, Yorke Peninsula, Barossa Valley (Angaston), Millicent, Naracoorte and Broken Hill. Flags were flown at half-mast in Moonta and a memorial service held in the town’s Anglican church. Mabel Humphris would have been expecting official notification from the military, but the telegram she received on 13 August must have been a shock. It reported that Bryan had been wounded.

With renewed hope that Bryan was alive (and perhaps some embarrassment that she may have jumped the gun in announcing his death), she sought clarification, through the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau, from the military. She was joined by the families of Bernard Dubois and Edward Wolff who had heard nothing since the news in the Kelly cable that they were missing. Before a reply was received however, Mabel received official news that Bryan had been killed. Confirmation that Dubois and Wolff were missing was sent to their families at the end of August.

Bryan was the first in his family to enlist. However, in March 1916, his two older brothers in Millicent both enlisted. Richard, the station master at Millicent Railway station, was 40 years old. Cav, a senior postal assistant at the Post Office was 34. Both were married with two children. The brothers were attached to the 18th Reinforcements of the 10th Battalion, given consecutive service numbers and embarked together on 27 June. They were at sea when Bryan was killed in July. By the end of the year, they were with the 10th Battalion in France. In May, Richard was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in action at the Battle of Bullecourt. In his own self-deprecating words:

In 1917, Cav was transferred to the 1st Division Signal Coy. He was severely gassed at the end of November, and evacuated to England, before rejoining his unit in March. Both men returned to Australia in mid-1919.

Corporal Bryan Humphris’ name is inscribed on Panel 4 of the V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles which commemorates the Australians killed at Fromelles whose bodies were not recovered after the battle.

In Adelaide, Bryan’s family added his name his parents’ gravestone in the North Road cemetery.

The memorial reads:

The assumption that Bryan must have been killed at the Battle of Pozieres (which began just days after Fromelles) was common, indicative of the lack of public information about the Battle of Fromelles, and of information given to families about a man’s death. Later, as they received more information from 32nd Battalion men and their families, the Humphris family understood that he had been killed at Fleurbaix, as the battle was called by the men who fought there, using the name of the village on the allied side of the front line. Bryan’s sisters and brothers continued to remember him in newspapers on the anniversary of his death.

In his community, Bryan is remembered at:

• The Town of Moonta Roll of Honor
• The Moonta RSL Honor Roll
• The Moonta District Roll of Honor
• The Moonta All Saints Anglican Church Memorial Honour Roll
• The Australian National Bank First World War Honour Board
• The Melrose School Roll of Honour
• The Norwood War Memorial

Nationally, Bryan’s name is commemorated at:

• The Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
• The South Australian National War Memorial

Bryan’s remains were not recovered; he has no known grave. After the battle, the Germans recovered 250 Australian soldiers and placed them in a burial pit at Pheasant Wood. This grave was discovered in 2008 and since then efforts have been underway to identify these soldiers by DNA testing from family members.

As of 2026, 181 of the soldiers have been identified, including 41 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion. We welcome all branches of Bryan’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification, especially those in the Adelaide area. If you know anything of family contacts, please contact the Fromelles Association. We hope that one day Bryan will be named and honoured with a known grave.

Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Bryan’s story.