Albert Hector Edwards (SN 3273) born in Ballarat, was a 20 year old boilermaker when he enlisted on July 23rd 1915. Assigned to the 5th Battalion his unit embarked from Melbourne aboard the Nestor on October 11th. While in Egypt he was attached to the 46th Battalion with whom he moved to France in March 1916. On September 2nd he was wounded in action, shell shock, but was able to rejoin his battalion the following day. His service record notes that at this time he was also suffering from ‘exhaustion' which might explain the series of absent without leave charges that followed. In December 1916 he was hospitalised ‘sick' and subsequently withdrawn to England suffering from rheumatism. It was not until October 1917 that he rejoined his battalion in France. On September 3rd 1918 he was wounded in action for a second time, gassed, and evacuated to hospital in England where he saw out the remaining weeks of the war. He returned home on the Orontes, disembarking on January 30th 1919 and was discharged on March 16th.