Charles Henry Blee (SN 2395) enlisted on September 23rd 1916 as a 21 year old plumber from Lyons Street Ballarat. He trained at Royal Park in Melbourne before embarking with the 39th Battalion, aboard the Port Lincoln on October 20th. After a period of further training in England he was posted to the battlefields of France in May 1917. In early November of 1917 he was struck down by severe appendicitis and evacuated to the Red Cross Hospital at Winchester in England. After he recovered, in April 1918, he was posted to the Machine Gun Training Depot at Grantham until late June when he was deemed fit enough to return to France. In mid-August he was transferred to the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion with whom, despite some bouts of illness, he saw out the final months of the war. He returned to Australia on the Persic, disembarking at Melbourne on August 29th 1919.