Patrick McQuillan was born in 1889, the elder of two sons of Margaret and Edward McQuillan. Before enlistment, he worked as a lineman, and in 1915 he married Ellen Josephine Flynn. On 1 April 1916, he embarked from Wellington on either the Maunganui or the Tahiti, bound for Suez. His embarkation unit was the New Zealand Field Engineers, Divisional Signal Company. It seems likely that this identification is correct, as the soldier in the photograph wears the cap and collar badges of the Royal New Zealand Corps of Signallers. Patrick McQuillan returned form the war, and lived to the age of 85. He is buried in Christchurch's Ruru Lawn Cemetery, along with his wife, who died in 1969 at the age of 80.