ROGERS, Joseph William

The Gallipoli Letter Card. Souvenir [cover title]

[Sydney], 'J.W. Rogers, 1st Battalion, Late AIF, Gallipoli', [1918] (the copyright registration form in the National Archives of Australia is dated 4 September 1918).

Approximately 110 × 155 mm, [8] pages comprising (unacknowledged) the last stanza of C.H. Souter's poem 'The Toast is Anzac, Gentlemen', 6 captioned plates (from photographs taken during the Dardanelles Campaign), and a ruled page; the inner surfaces of the wrappers are also ruled.

(Originally) saddle-stapled (the rusty staple has now been removed) in buff-coloured overlapping printed wrappers with gummed and perforated margins (designed to be sealed for despatch and removed on receipt); wrappers a little foxed; two short tears to the rear wrapper expertly sealed; an excellent copy (unused).

The first plate is fairly pedestrian ('Making a New Road on X Beach'), but the last two make one wonder what market research the author undertook. The captions are 'Wounded waiting in Gully Ravine' and 'Kits of Dead and Wounded lying on W Beach after the Landing'. This may go a long way to explaining why these Gallipoli Letter Cards are very rare ... 2194 Private Joseph William Rogers enlisted in the AIF in May 1915; he gave his age at 44 when he was in fact 50. He joined the 1st Battalion at Anzac Cove on 6 August as the ferocious fighting for Lone Pine began. His brief career in the AIF was marked by constant illness and repeated hospitalisation at Mudros and in Egypt for a series of complaints. He was returned to Australia with myocarditis, debility and rheumatism. He was discharged on a pension, apparently supplementing it with these evocative self-published souvenirs that made good of his Gallipoli experiences.