[War Graves]

'Photos of the Last Resting Place | Men of the Australian & New Zealand Forces | Who fell in the Great War 1914-1919 | "Port Said" Cemetery' [manuscript cover title of an album of original photographs]

A buckram-bound photograph album (approximately 200 × 255 mm), containing 59 original vintage photographs loosely inserted behind window-mounts on both sides of nine album leaves (prints 90 × 62 mm, visible image size 79 × 54 mm). Each page has four windows; 70 of the 72 have details of an individual soldier written neatly in white ink beneath them, but eleven do not contain a photograph (and appear never to have contained one).

Binding weak at one opening; in excellent condition.

The captions comprise an alpha-numeric grave number and the details of the deceased; the first example ('71B. 1657 Tpr. F.E.B. Peisley | 1st A.L.H.') is typical. In all instances, the simple wooden cross and grave are decorated with numerous wreaths; on closer inspection, it seems the same floral tributes recur in many of the images, suggesting that these photographs were taken on just the one (or very few) visits to the cemetery. The album may have been compiled by Honorary Captain R.R. Way of the YMCA; a large YMCA Rest Camp operated at Port Said from August 1917.

Item #117312

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