An unusually comprehensive archive of correspondence, photographs and documents relating to an Australian serviceman in the First World War. Second Lieutenant Edward Watson Powell served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, trained as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, and was killed in action when his Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a was shot down over Belgium in October 1917
Powell enlisted in Melbourne in August 1914 (service number 187) and was deployed to Gallipoli with the 2nd Field Ambulance A.I.F. After the evacuation he was promoted to corporal and then sergeant while with the 1st Divisional Headquarters, seeing action on the Western Front, before training as a pilot and being commissioned as an officer with the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917. Deployed once again to France with No. 84 Squadron R.F.C. in late September 1917, he was reported missing near Menin (Menen), Belgium, on 31 October, likely shot down by a German fighter. The archive comprises: (1) Approximately 75 autograph letters sent by Powell to his mother Clara and twin sister Mary in East Prahran, Melbourne, running to some 235 octavo or quarto pages. They date from soon after his enlistment to shortly before his death. Six were written on the Gallipoli Peninsula, with others from Egypt, the Western Front, and the United Kingdom (mainly during pilot training). While many of the letters are routine and others are guarded, at numerous occasions Powell allows himself to reflect candidly on his experience of the war (see examples below). (2) Approximately 90 closely-written postcards, also addressed to Clara and Mary, mainly from Egypt while on active service. The postcards are often written in numbered series, most of which are complete. (3) Approximately 15 Field Service postcards, signed by Powell, several with Gallipoli postmarks. (4) Approximately 45 vintage gelatin silver photographs, most relating to Powell's war service. The most interesting are 17 small snapshots (approximately 45 × 65 mm) most likely taken by Powell himself (his letters suggest he was a keen amateur photographer), showing gullies and ridges at Gallipoli (2); Australian servicemen and encampments in the Middle East, with captions on the versos identifying several (7); R.F.C. aircraft, apparently Farman reconnaissance biplanes, in the snow at Netheravon Airfield (3, all captioned); and five others taken during pilot training in Britain. There are also five larger images (approximately 80 × 110 mm) showing military aircraft, two possibly also showing Powell, and two showing an airship. There are ten portrait photographs of Powell (five in uniform, one in a small cut glass and mother-of-pearl frame, probably purchased in Egypt), as well as three in which he is shown with a young woman (likely Mary), apparently taken shortly after he enlisted. A further nine photographs show friends and relatives (some identified). (5) Approximately 60 pieces of ephemera and personal documents relating to Powell's service, mainly mess bills, receipts and other financial documents, but also Christmas cards, cinema programmes, and city maps. A few relate to his life before the war, including a reference from an employer. There are also several interesting documents relating to First World War aviation, including the 'Royal Flying Corps Communiqué No. 58' (22 October 1916) giving details of R.F.C. actions in France (bombing, aerial photography, casualties, hostile aircraft, flying conditions etc.) for the preceding week. (6) Approximately 30 letters addressed to Powell, mostly from his aunt Emma. Many of the letters are dated 1917, suggesting they may have been among his effects when he died. One particularly engaging three-page letter from a fellow R.F.C. officer (Nugget, and addressing Powell also as Nugget, a few words censored) gives a very detailed account of a dog-fight with German aircraft over the Western Front. Dated 16 September 1917, shortly before Powell's deployment to France, it also includes much practical advice on flying in combat. (7) 29 postcards addressed to Powell from two young French women, Jeanne and Renée, whom he may have met in Marseille in early 1916: '... je suis inquiète de ne plus reçevoir de vos nouvelles. Ne m'oubliez pas. I love you' etc. There is also a small photograph of Jeanne, clipped from a postcard-format photograph. These items may have been forwarded to his sister as part of their running joke about him bringing home a foreign bride. (8) Some 40 official documents and family correspondence subsequent to Powell's death, including the official telegram announcing his disappearance. (9) Approximately 60 envelopes and other items of postal stationery, most retaining the postmarks and stamps (if used). The postmarks include numerous field post offices, including Gallipoli, Egypt, Greece, and the Western Front. (10) A Sam Browne belt and leather notebook case purchased with the archive, and with Powell's name in black ink on the inside surface. (11) A group of 7 postcards from Mary's fiancé Harold, while on service in Egypt and the Western Front. (12) Eighteen reproductions of other photographs relating to Powell's war service, showing Egypt, Gallipoli and (apparently) an airfield in Britain. Several show Powell alongside other Australian soldiers. A few highlights of the collection include: A letter to his mother from Gallipoli on 20 May 1915: 'The infantry have done marvellous work here as you will read in the press. It needs seeing the cliffs & then you could appreciate it. It was wonderful. Poor Lou Matthews died yesterday, I believe shot though the head, but Arthur Clayfield was all right yesterday at any rate. Keith McIlwraith ... died the first day (bullet in head).... I am not in love with this war game & in fact I think that after 3 more wars I will retire from the game & let someone else get all the glory &c out of it'. In another letter to his mother, from Gallipoli on 16 June 1915, Powell asks her to tell his sister that the dances in fashion in the trenches are the 'Shrapnel slide', the 'Shell shivers', and the 'Howitzer hug', and 'I may tell you baseball was a good training inasmuch as the sliding into a hole is concerned'. A lengthy letter from the Western Front to 'Ma chere Mere' is dated '8 Mai 1916': he has been granted furlough to England and asks for £20 to be cabled to his account. 'Our 2/- per day wont allow for any saving-up, as although we are fighting for their country, the Northern French people put the weight in to the Australians just the same as the Egyptians did'. Later, he writes 'We are in the fighting line again, but it is nothing to Gallipoli - take it from me Gallipoli from Apl 25th to about 20th August was some go & after seeing that through I reckon a chap will die of old age.... Well I am glad that I came with the 1st Division as we have some choice names for the chaps arriving now & they get rather a rough time when they start to talk to fellows about Gallipoli & were never there in their lives. It is rather annoying but the ones who were not on the Penin. at all or who were there for about 5 minutes (that is after August) do all the talking'. A fortnight later, on 21 May 1916, he tells his mother about a thank-you letter he receives for his 'acknowledging letter to the billy which I received while at Lemnos after Gallipoli.... The funny part about those billies was the way they were pasted round with a kangaroo on the map of Gallipoli & on it - "WHAT WE HAVE WE'LL HOLD". We got them just after being withdrawn from what we had won from them. It seemed like a bit of a rub from "JACKO" (the Turks)'. In a letter from the Central Flying School, Upavon on 21 April 1917, Powell reflects that 'as usual the poor old Australians are doing more than their share. The Huns recently claimed to have cut off 750 of them (you can guess it was the poor old 1st Div. going on ahead & not being supported on the flanks) at Lagnicourt. It is only history repeating itself, the same as Gallipoli, the English troops letting them down, & then some people over here pretend to think them "not nice" because when they get a little leave from France or hospital, they play up a little. I wonder how they would get on without the Australians, New Zealanders, & Canadians - anyway I know to whom they give the hardest fighting & whom they welcome with open arms to the R.F.C. - nuf sed'. [Over 520 items].
Item #121325
Price (AUD):
$11,000.00