diff --git a/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.cpp b/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.cpp
index f27e83d377..6987ba984e 100644
--- a/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.cpp
+++ b/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.cpp
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ namespace hdf5 {
 namespace attribute {
 
 Attribute::Attribute(ObjectHandle &&handle,const node::Link &parent_link):
-    handle_(std::move(handle)),
-    parent_link_(parent_link)
+    parent_link_(parent_link),
+    handle_(std::move(handle))
 {
 }
 
diff --git a/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.hpp b/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.hpp
index 98d21fff5c..ab47bf8bcc 100644
--- a/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.hpp
+++ b/src/h5cpp/attribute/attribute.hpp
@@ -203,8 +203,8 @@ class DLL_EXPORT Attribute
     void read(T &data,const datatype::Datatype &mem_type) const;
 
   private:
-    ObjectHandle handle_;
     node::Link   parent_link_;
+    ObjectHandle handle_;
 
     template<typename T>
     void read(T &data,const datatype::Datatype &mem_type, const datatype::Datatype &file_type) const;