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Fresh images of Anzacs unearthed in London museum
By Peter Veness From:AAP November 05, 2011 12:00AM
Images of Lt Irvine Barton, Captain Frank Amphlett and Captain Eric Klig are just some of the hundreds found in a London museum. Picture: Courtesy Department of Veteran Affairs HUNDREDS of photos depicting Australian soldiers before their departure for the battlefields of World War I have been discovered in a London museum. The more than 500 portraits will be linked to online records already available through the National Archives of Australia. The crisp black and white images show young men in uniform, hair done and beards shaven, ready for battle. The photos were discovered by archives staff member Courtney Page-Allen at London's Imperial War Museum and form part of a collection of 16,000 WWI images. One of the records pieced together tells the story of Lieutenant William Allen. He joined the army in August 1914 and fought with 4th Light Horse Regiment at Gallipoli before being killed in action in February 1917 at Holly Ridge in France. Included in the collection is a letter from Allen's mother written to the Army Records Office in the wake of her son's death. "I was his widowed mother and he was my only child," Mrs Allen writes. "My late husband his father died when he was an infant, three weeks old." It is just one tragic story from a war filled with them. Some of the portraits and accompanying stories are available at www.dva.gov.au and further information can be found at www.mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au. |
