| Regimental number | 2300 |
| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | Nhill, Victoria |
| School | Kiata State School, Victoria |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Telephonist, GPO |
| Address | Kiata via Nhill, Victoria |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 18 |
| Height | 5' 8" |
| Weight | 123 lbs |
| Next of kin | Father, Henry Collins, Kiata via Nhill, Victoria |
| Previous military service | Swerved for 2 years in the Senior Cadets; 9 months in the Citizen Military Forces. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll | |
| Place of enlistment | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 38th Battalion, 4th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/55/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 38th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Messines, Belgium |
| Date of death | |
| Age at death | 19 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 129 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Henry and Elizabeth COLLINS, Percy Street, Portland, Victoria |
| Family/military connections | Brother: P A Collins, Kiata via Nhill |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Melbourne, 20 October 1916; disembarked Sierra Leone, West Africa; embarked Sierra Leone on board HT 'Willochra', 4 December 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 29 December 1916, and marched in to 10th Training Bn. Proceeded overseas to France, 28 March 1917; taken on strength, 38th Bn, in the field, 2 April 1917. Killed in action, 7-9 June 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, COLLINS Cecil Claude Clifton |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
