Cirrus@Austlit

'William ‘Mont’ Montgomery was a 24-year-old art student at the National Gallery School when, concerned at the dire war news from France, he enlisted on 29 January 1915.1 When the new Victorian 6th Brigade was raised at Broadmeadows in late March, No. 929, Private William Montgomery was assigned to D Company, 21 Battalion.2 Over the next four years Mont fought in many major battles – Gallipoli, Pozières, Ypres and Mont St Quentin among them – learning the art of soldiering and attaining the rank of sergeant. Tragically, on 5 October 1918 and with the Allied victory so close, Mont died of wounds in the battle for Montbrehain village on the Hindenburg Line.3 It was the last day of the last battle fought by Australians on the Western Front.' (19)