A Voyage with the Mails between Brisbane - London. Australia and Great Britain. 3rd Edition. A Memento by an Amateur Photographer with 103 Original Photographs
London, The London Stereoscopic Company, Ltd. [for the Orient Line?], [1914] (third edition).
Large quarto, 64 pages with over 100 illustrations (from photographs).
Expertly reinserted in the original two-colour pictorial cloth with new endpapers and flyleaves; cloth stained and a little worn, with a small group of tiny punctures to the rear board; fore-edge trimmed, top and bottom edges a little marked; scattered foxing (heavier near the covers); tissue-guards discoloured, with trifling blemishes to a few; minor signs of use and age; a very presentable copy.
SS 'Omrah' was requisitioned in August 1914 by the Australian Commonwealth Government, and formed part of the first convoy of troopships to depart Albany on 1 November 1914. Loosely inserted in this book are four ephemeral pieces relating to SS 'Omrah', including a roughly contemporary photograph (176 × 300 mm) of SS 'Omrah' A5, with a printed caption noting that she 'sailed from Brisbane 24th Sept. 1914 with 9th Batn ASC AAMC'. It is inscribed on the verso by one of the passengers, 694 George Edward Jamieson, a private in the 9th Battalion, later a lieutenant in the 1st Machine Gun Company. The book has a contemporary gift inscription on an early blank page 'To my dear sister Allie. Jan 18th 1915. From Geo. Mena Camp Via Cairo Egypt AIF'. Mounted on page 5 is a photogravure of the 'Omrah', with her specific details inscribed in the relevant spaces below. Of the utmost significance are the details entered on pages 6 and 7, designed to be used for the autographs of fellow-passengers: there are 46 signatures, often with addresses or unit details, many of them from the 9th Battalion. George Jamieson added a short rhyming note on 18 January 1915: 'This book was bought on the "Omrah", | and was meant to be sent home at once; | but thro' Sergeants, Officers etc., | it has been delayed for some months'.The Australian War Memorial records that 'The 9th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. It was the first battalion recruited in Queensland, and with the 10th, 11th and 12th Battalions it formed the 3rd Brigade. The battalion was raised within weeks of the declaration of war in August 1914 and embarked just two months later. After preliminary training, the battalion sailed to Egypt, arriving in early December. The 3rd Brigade was the covering force for the ANZAC landing on 25 April 1915, and so was the first ashore at around 4.30 am. The battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC beachhead. It served at ANZAC until the evacuation in December 1915'.
Item #116551
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