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Colin Bayly was born at Semaphore, South Australia in 1886 and later with his older brother, Brian attended the Collegiate School of St Peter. After leaving the School, he entered Adelaide University to study engineering but left to work in England. There he worked as a deck hand aboard coasters until he took up a position as a manufacturing pupil with the British & American Tobacco Co., in June 1913.

He worked at the Ashton Gate factory, Southampton for a few months, and was later on the management staff of (BAT) Commercial Rd, Liverpool. Colin had earlier sought a commission in the Australian Armed Forces but his application was not approved due to only a few being available at the time. With war on the horizon and wishing to better prepare himself for life as a soldier he joined the ranks of the 10th (Scottish) Battalion the King's (Liverpool) Regiment. He was one of three hundred men recruited to bring the battalion up to the wartime establishment, which enabled it to become one of the first Territorial units to go overseas.

On 2 September 1914, Private Bayly was posted to B Company 1st /10th Battalion the King's (Liverpool) Regiment, which was, then in camp at King's Park, Edinburgh. At the end of October B Company left Tunbridge Wells Billets and embarked aboard the SS Maidan the following day at Southampton bound for France and the Western Front.

The 1/10th Battalion, which was part of the Regular Army's 3rd Division, went into the line at Kemmel Hill at the end of November and after a dreadful winter, occupied the line in various sectors of the Ypres Salient including Hill 60 and St Eloi. Private Bayly contracted malaria and rheumatism and with deteriorating health, was invalided back to the Welsh hospital at Netley in the UK. Following his long recovery 3216, Private Bayly was billeted with B Company of the 2/10th Battalion at Tunbridge Wells. [i]

These few lines from a letter to his family indicate that although looking forward to becoming an officer, Colin was bored and keen to rejoin his unit at the Front.

They have arranged to send out my commission in the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry when the War Office gazette it, but I couldn’t stand being in England waiting about; hence my departure to the front. [ii]

Lance Corporal Bayly embarked for France with the 3rd quota of reinforcement for a service battalion shortly after writing the above letter and there rejoined the 1/10th Battalion and was with them when he was killed in action on 16 April 1915; he was 28 years of age.

Colin’s brother, Captain Brian Brock Bayly MC, (OS) of the 254th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers was killed on 30 October 1917.[iii]

The circumstances surrounding the death of Colin Bayly were recorded in the 1st /10th Battalion’s official war diary.

The trenches were shelled by the enemy daily sometimes with crumps, sometimes with whizz‑bangs, and on the 16th they landed one into the left of Q2 (trench) close to the machine gun pit whereby Second Lieutenant VB Leitch was fatally wounded. No 3216 Pte C Bayly and No 3067 Pte G Veitch were killed instantly and 1667 L/Cpl AR Fraser Machine Gun Section was wounded. [iv]

The Regimental Medical Officer of the 10th (Scottish) Battalion, the King's (Liverpool) Regiment was Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse VC and Bar, MC.

He is Britain's most highly decorated soldier and one of only three men to have awarded the Victoria Cross twice, and the only one to win it twice in the same year. His father the Right Reverend Francis Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool established St Peter's College at Oxford, England in 1846. [v]

[i] British & American Tobacco Co, Gazette, undated, researched and provided by Mr Dennis Reeves Hon Curator Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum
[ii] Adelaide Chronicle, 8 May 1915, p. 40
[iii] Researched and provided by Mr Dennis Reeves Hon Curator Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum
[iv] 1/10th Battalion War Diary 14 -21 April 1915,  Information researched and provided by Major I L Riley TD FSA Scot (retd) - Hon Secretary Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum
[v] Information courtesy  Major Ian Riley, TD FSA Scot Ret - Hon. Secretary Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum