Private wearing officers tunic? AIF

[tankengine888]

Hello!
I found a photo of Albert Francis Dunicliff/Dunnicliff, 10th Battalion, 12th Reinforcements.
And quoted from the AWM
"Informal portrait of 3735 Private (Pte) Albert Francis Dunnicliff, 12th Reinforcements, 10th Battalion, of Adelaide, SA. Albert was born on 4 September 1901 to Mabel and Ernest Dunnicliff. His father had previously enlisted and was killed in action on 6 August 1915 at Lone Pine. Albert enlisted three weeks later on 28 August 1915 aged just 13 years; he is probably the youngest person to enlist and serve in the AIF. Albert embarked from Adelaide aboard RMS Malwa on 2 December 1915 and arrived in Egypt on 11 January 1916. Not long after arrival he had a badly in grown toe nail and was moved from his unit to the 12th Battalion (his late father's Battalion) to a hospital in Cairo. After leaving the hospital he was transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion and shipped out to France. In December 1916 Albert wrote an application for discharge stating that his father and brother had been killed at Lone Pine and that he could not stand the strain of the front in France for much longer. He also admitted to lying about his age. Albert returned to Australia on 12 April 1917 after serving with the AIF for 16 months"

Thing is, my friends are saying this man was an officer due to his uniform, but this is incorrect, he never got commissioned. Photo was taken in 1919* 

So I was got stumped and came here
Photo

[Andrew Upton]

1 hour ago, tankengine888 said:

...Thing is, my friends are saying this man was an officer due to his uniform, but this is incorrect, he never got commissioned. Photo was taken in 1919*...

Your friends are correct - the man in the photo is indeed wearing the uniform of an officer of the period. He appears to have two "pips" on his shoulder which would make him a Lieutenant, and has medal ribbons up for WW1 service - two of these are for the BWM and VM, which would put the date as no earlier than 1919. The first is unfortunately not so clear, but could be that of either the 1914 or 1914-15 Star. If the information given that Albert Francis Dunnicliff "embarked from Adelaide aboard RMS Malwa on 2 December 1915 and arrived in Egypt on 11 January 1916" is correct then he would not have been entitled to either of the Stars.

So the two main options would be - the man in the photo is Albert Francis Dunnicliff, but he is wearing the uniform of a family member, friend, etc, and wasn't entitled to it - or the photo has been misidentified in the past and is actually of someone else. I would suspect the latter at this stage myself.

 

[frev]

Albert was made a provisional Lieutenant in the Militia in 1918

 

Commonwealth Government Gazette – Thur 24 Apr 1919 (p.555)

APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, ETC

4th MILITARY DISTRICT

10th Infantry Regiment (Adelaide Rifles) – 3rd Battalion –

ALBERT FRANCIS DUNNICLIFF to be Lieutenant (provisionally), 1st October 1918;

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232511346/25024554

 

Cheers, Frev

 

Edit: Having left Australia in 1915 (even though it was Dec) he was entitled to the 1914/1915 Star - see all three medals issued to him on the last page of his service record.

Edited 11 January , 2022 by frev

[tankengine888]

36 minutes ago, frev said:

Albert was made a provisional Lieutenant in the Militia in 1918

 

Commonwealth Government Gazette – Thur 24 Apr 1919 (p.555)

APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, ETC

4th MILITARY DISTRICT

10th Infantry Regiment (Adelaide Rifles) – 3rd Battalion –

ALBERT FRANCIS DUNNICLIFF to be Lieutenant (provisionally), 1st October 1918;

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232511346/25024554

 

Cheers, Frev

 

Edit: Having left Australia in 1915 (even though it was Dec) he was entitled to the 1914/1915 Star - see all three medals issued to him on the last page of his service record.

Hello!
Yeah, this makes sense now, I wish AWM mentioned it, but alas I am proven wrong.

Also, your overseas marriage database, how common was it to marry o/s?

Cheers!

[frev]

On 11/01/2022 at 15:16, tankengine888 said:

Also, your overseas marriage database, how common was it to marry o/s?
 

 

Not that common:

Of the somewhere over 324,000 Australian soldiers that served overseas during WW1 https://www.naa.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/war/world-war-i

It's been estimated that somewhere over 13,000 married https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/war-brides

Still a lot more than I realised when I first started collecting the data many years ago!

Cheers, Frev