Can you help us identify Harold?

Michael Harold Norman Dillon, known as Harold to his family (and as Michael Norman Harold Dillon in all his military files) was born in Payneham in Adelaide on 13 August 1896. He was the eldest child of John (Jack) Dillon and Sabina (Bina) Cecelia Conlin’s (aka Conlon) seven children:

Bina’s parents, Martin Conlin and Bridget Guerin, had both come to South Australia from County Cork, Ireland as young children in the 1840s - Bridget aboard the Birman. in 1840 and Martin in 1846 on the Lady Bruce. The families settled in the Adelaide Hills, south of Mt Barker. Martin Conlin and Bridget Guerin married at Bulls Creek in 1865 and had 15 children in the next 24 years.

The area of the Adelaide Hills in which the Conlin and Guerin families settled became home to many Irish migrants from the 1840s who became small tenant farmers. The district developed a deep Irish character with maintenance of Irish traditions and continuing affiliation with the Catholic church. Harold’s father was the son of Irish parents Michael and Margaret Dillon (nee O’Donnell) who married in Adelaide in 1863. Michael and Margaret lived all their married lives in Paradise, at the time a market gardening area along the Torrens River. John worked with E & W Hackett, a prominent firm of seedsmen and nurserymen in Adelaide. Jack Dillon and Bina Conlin were married in the Roman Catholic church at Macclesfield in 1895.

In the late 1890s, Harold’s father, Jack Dillon, was appointed gardener and orchardist at Struan, the property and stately 40 roomed house of a wealthy pastoralist family, just outside Naracoorte in the South-East of South Australia. This is where Harold and his siblings grew up.

The lives of the Dillon family members revolved around Struan. Harold and his siblings attended Struan School and then often worked on the staff of the Struan house and property. Jack continued as a valued employee at Struan for the rest of his life. After Jack’s death, Harold’s mother Bina lived in her Struan home for as long as she could.

After he left school, Harold became a labourer at Struan. In 1913 he was a groomsman at the wedding of two other Struan employees.

In July 1915 there was a surge in enlistment as, in the wake of the landing at Gallipoli, men decided that it was their duty to fight ‘for the Empire’. Harold went into the Council Office in Naracoorte where he was given a rail ticket to Adelaide. As he was under 20, he carried with him a letter from his father giving approval for his enlistment.

On 9 July, Harold went to Keswick Barracks in Adelaide, and filled in his enlistment form, naming his father as next of kin. After moving into Mitcham Camp on 12 July, Harold was assigned to the 32nd Battalion when it was formed in mid-August and became a member of A Company.

A and B Companies were made up of recruits from South Australia and C and D Companies came from 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 and the West Australians who had begun their training at Blackboy Hill near Perth joined them at the end of September.

As the Battalion’s date of departure from Australia approached, men were given leave to say farewell to their family and friends. Harold returned home at the end of October and the Naracoorte Herald reported on the farewell evening held in his home, where he was presented with a smoker’s outfit and a silver-mounted tobacco pouch.

The 32nd Battalion departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915, 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. Their 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.

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), Ray’s brother, 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 reconnoitering 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, Harold’s 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. Harold’s A Company, along with C Company were in the first and second waves to go over the parapet at 5.53 PM. B Company & D 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:

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 Harold. 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:

With about 85% of the 32nd Battalion having been 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. Harold Dillon was one of the many men who were missing. On 30 August, Jack Dillon received the news that his son had been missing since July 20.

For families of missing men, each day was one of uncertainty and suspense. They waited and longed for news, but for many, it was months before they received any further information from the military. Jack and Bina Dillon were not prepared to wait for news to arrive. At the beginning of September, immediately after being told Harold was missing, they wrote to Base Records in Melbourne, which was the contact point between families and the military, and to the South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau which assisted families of wounded or missing men to get any available information about them. Their distress is evident. Jack wrote to Base Records “Please let me know, I am very worried about him”

Source - NAA: B2455, DILLON, Michael – First AIF Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, page 66

Bina asked the Red Cross, “Do you think you can do anything for me in tracing the fate of my poor son. I am very worried over him.”

Source – South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau M.H.N. Dillon, p4

Neither Base Records nor the Red Cross could give any more information. At the beginning of October, Bina wrote again to Base Records and to the Australian Red Cross in Sydney. She had accepted that it was likely that Harold had been killed but was distressed at the inability of anyone to give her news:

Jack’s letter to the South Australian Red Cross later in October has evidence of all the thinking he and Bina had done as the days passed with no definite news:

Bina was described in 1940 as a woman of “grit, pluck and perseverance” in dealing with health setbacks.

Source - Personal. (1940, November 15). The Narracoorte Herald (SA : 1875 - 1965), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147032368

These were qualities that she also demonstrated in the long months of waiting for news from the military. In her regular letters to the military, her increasing frustration at the military’s inability to tell her what had happened to Harold was clear. In January 1917, “It seems very hard on me to get no satisfaction about him. Will you try as a favour to get a definite word for me somehow?”

Source - NAA: B2455, DILLON, Michael – First AIF Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, page 61

In March, ‘It’s now 8 months ago since reported missing. Surely I can get definite word. … I now believe him dead. But the military has left me very unsatisfactory over it”

Source - NAA: B2455, DILLON, Michael – First AIF Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, page 54

In June, “Can you not let me know definitely what has happened to my son? … It’s now nearly a year and I still get no tidings of him. … It is really too bad to keep me in this position as surely there is some way for the authorities to find out about our boys in a year’s time?”

Source - NAA- B2455, DILLON, Michael – First AIF Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920, page 52

The Dillons had accepted that Harold would not return so Sabina’s letters increasingly asked for his deferred pay, his death certificate so that insurance could be paid, and for his personal effects to be returned to her. Base Records could provide no satisfaction because they had received no further information from overseas. It was not until September 1917 that the Dillons of were officially informed of what they had long accepted – that Harold had been killed on action on 20 July.

When, despite further letters, Harold’s death certificate still did not arrive, Bina wrote to the Premier of South Australia, seeking his assistance. This was passed on to the Federal Defence Minister. The death certificate finally arrived in November 1917. Sabina and Jack continued to write, hoping that some of Harold’s personal belongings might be returned to the. Like the families of almost all missing men from Fromelles, no personal belongings were ever returned.

Private Harold Dillon’s name is inscribed on Panel 5 of the V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles which commemorates all the Australians killed at Fromelles whose bodies were not recovered after the battle.

In Naracoorte, Harold is remembered on the Naracoorte and District Town Hall Honour Board.

Harold is also remembered at the Adelaide National War Memorial and the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour.

Jack Dillon died in 1937, but Sabina continued to live at Struan. In a column about her in the Naracoorte Herald in 1940, she expressed pride in the fact that:

Harold’s three younger brothers, John Reginald Dillon (Reg) (2/27 Infantry Battalion),

Francis Vaughan Dillon (Frank) – (2 HQ Guard Battalion), and Charles Raymond Dillon (2/48 Battalion), were all able to return to civilian life at the end of the Second World War.

Harold’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 141 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion. We welcome all branches of Harold’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification.

If you know anything of family contacts, please contact the Fromelles Association. We hope that one day Harold will be named and honoured with a known grave. Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Harold’s story.