Alexander David Edward (SN 2305) was born in Ballarat where he enlisted as a 23 year old window dresser on August 30th 1916. He sailed from Melbourne on October 20th aboard the Port Lincoln to Sierra Leone then transferred to the Borda to complete the voyage to England where he arrived in early January in 1917. Soon after arriving he was hospitalised with broncho-pneumonia. In July 1917 he reached France but on October 12th, while serving with the 39th Battalion, he was wounded in action, sustaining a bullet wound to his leg. He was evacuated to hospital in England where it was decided he should be returned to Australia. He left England on April 15th 1918 aboard the Marathon, reached Melbourne on June 12th and was discharged on August 27th 1918.

Lucas’s Staffs Appreciation of Brave Men, the original Avenue register, records his name as Alexander D. Edwards.