Additions will be checked before being published on the website and where possible will be forwarded to the person who submitted the original entries. Your contact details will not be forwarded, but they can send a reply via this messaging system.
please scroll down to send a message
Spr. Paul Benjamin Collis
Australian Imperial Force. 1st Australian Tunnelling Company
My Great Uncle, Paul Collis emigrated to Australia before the War and worked in the mines. He had been a motor engineer in London, born in the East End, and he saw one of his open topped buses from London in service in France, transporting troops. He was at Hill 60 and he left me a cap badge given to him at Hill 60 by a soldier from the Royal West Kents. He also left me a letter his cousin wrote to him, shot through the heart and the letter whilst going over the top in another part of the line. My Great Uncle Paul also left me a letter he wrote whilst in a dug out under Hill 60 in which he describes travelling there in an armoured train.
Great Uncle Paul Died in 1976, but I did return with myself to Hill 60 after my graduation in 1973. I have a picture of him with his mates from the 1ST ATC in an Estaminet in 1918. One of the soldiers in the Photo was featured in the film Beneath Hill 60. I sent a copy of the photo and it is on the films website.
