Photo album.

Earlier year I was approached by the DVA to assist in identifying a photo album found at Norwood--Morialta High School by the School Principal among material about to be thrown out as part of the school refurbishment program. The album had been found in a desk wrapped up in a tea towel in a class room used for history classes.

The Headmistress thought that the album had been loaned to the school by a WWI veteran whose name might be on the WWI School Honour Roll. The records of the item being loaned to the school had been lost.

Subsequent enquires amongst the older teachers suggested that the album had been brought by Colin Love in the late 1990's probably for Anzac Day or the National Identity through War Project. An A.C. Love, who enlisted in 1918, appears on the School Honour Roll which contains 136 names listed by year of enlistment.

The photo album consisted of 50 pages with the cloth hinges broken so that the pages were no longer in the original chronological order. The album contained 215 photos, very few of which had any sort of notation other than the commercial prints of different Middle Eastern locations from Egypt to Palestine.

The only names were:

Doug & Gay Fairweather

Padre Finnigan

Arthur wearing a singlet and his horse Torn

Grave of Lt A.R.Nield, KIA 11.4.1918, and other members of the Camel Corps

Photo of an unnamed Light Horse officer taken at Loch Lomond June 1919

The type of photos and the place names indicated the WWI Middle East campaign involving the Light Horse and/or Camel Corps.

The only other clues were:

A Light Horse corporal with probably a nurse in and around Egypt

Corporal with horse with the same leg mark as Tom

3rd LH Bde Sports

3rd Bde Trekking

9th LH wagon train

A Sqn

Boys from the 8th

Destroyed Tank 19th Apt 1917

Photo K1A 11.4. 18 Lt A.R. Neild

Names of OR's from No. 2 & No. 4 Coy 1 Anzac Battalion ICC 

Pte from 10 Coy 2 Bn ICC

Gen Allenby Proclaiming Official entry into Jerusalem 

Light Horse officer on leave in England

Light Horse officer with friends at Loch Lomond

Officer asleep on deck chair "He sleepeth Ceramic 1919"

Weighing up the evidence it became clear that the album covered the full span of WWI and related to a corporal and/or lieutenant from possibly the 9th Light Horse Regiment of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. There was evidence that the corporal's first name was Arthur and that he an appeared in a number of photos of small, groups of individuals and had a resemblance to the officer who returned to Australia on the Ceramic in 1919.

Hypothesis

The photos related to the WWI service of a soldier called Arthur who served as a corporal, had a lady friend probably a nurse in Cairo, ended WWI as a lieutenant probably in the 9th Light Horse Regiment and returned to Australia on SS Ceramic in 1919.

Research

1. Doug Fairweather--Listed on AWM Nominal Roll as 1537 WO2 Douglas Allen Fairweather, 9th Light Horse Enlisted 22.7.1915 RTA 10.7.1919 Therefore not Sept 1919 or Ceramic.

2. Padre Finnigan not listed on AWM WWI Roll. His picture appears in the 9th Light Horse History by T H Darley. Name had been misspelled on the photo not on the School Honour Roll.

3. Lt A.R. Nield KIA 11.4.1918 with the 1st Aust Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps. Two Nield names appear on the School Honour Roll but with different initials. Both served in infantry units 27th & 48th and RTA 1917. Registration of SA Births 1842-1906 show these three to be brothers. 9th LH Nominal Roll listed him in A Sqn as a Corporal.

4. Construct a database of all 9th Light Horse officers from Army Lists, those who survived. No access to AMF Officers Lists for 1917 & 1919 therefore not a complete list. Most Officers of the 9th Light Horse returned on the Oxfordshire. Passenger list of Ceramic for 1919 did not list military personnel by name.

5. School Honour Roll research showing those who served in 9th Light Horse

P. Bennetts No. 1269 Also Gunner 11th FA Bde J.W. McKechnie No. 868 4th Reft 9th LH also 11th Light Horse RTA 7.9.1919 A.R. Nield A Sqn 9th LH KIA 11.4.1919 W.G Smith. No. 3731 34th Reft. 9th L Horse

No one with the name of Arthur, or a Lieutenant, or had enlisted too late.

6. Examine the Nominal Roll of 9th Light Horse for all persons with Arthur in their name. This Roll had been compiled by the Ladies Auxiliary of the 9th Light Horse and listed full names NOK of all those who enlisted as the originals and as reinforcements. Notes also included date of RTA and ships Name, KIA, and other details as available.

This record showed No. 536 Pte Arthur Graham. Burns A Sqn 9th Light Horse who returned in 1919 per Ceramic. The group photo of officers of the 9th Light Horse, Tripoli shows Lt A.G. Bums in the front row. His appearance and distinctive jaw fine matches pictures of Arthur in the photo album.

7. DVA obtained the personal file for Arthur Graham Burns

He enlisted 27.10.1914

Transferred to Malta Hospital 12.9.1915

Detached to School of Instruction 12.9.1915

Prom Temp Signals Corporal 4.9.1916

Promoted Signal Corporal 16.3.1917

Appointed 2Lt 26.10.1917

Promoted Lt 26.1.1918

Signals Officer for the 9th Light Horse.

Detached to 14th Sqn RFC 20.3.1919 Instructor

To Imperial School of Instruction 31.5.1918

Embarked at Pt Said for UK for 10% Leave

Departed Liverpool SS Ceramic 24.9.1919

8. From the SA Genealogical Marriage Records he married Grace Adeline Lyndon. This surname does not appear on the School Honour neither do the names of her sisters husbands. Her name does not appear in the list of Australian Army nurses.

9. The photos found in the album mirror his record of service with the Light Horse, his attanced at Schools and Courses, his hospital stay at Malta, his time with the RFC, and his mate Lt Nield with whom he served in A Sqn 9th Light Horse and who was later killed with the 1 st Aust Battalion Imperial Camel Corps.

10. Photos taken in the UK and at Loch Lomond may possibly be related to the Nurse in Egypt and her family. The next task is to track down any children, it is known that he had at least a step daughter from a second age.

11. During WW2 he served in the 3rd Battalion VDC as a sergeant and lived at Fullarton not fair from Norwood High School. He died in 1965 and it is believed at this stage that any possible relatives might be residing in NSW. Follow up research of his relatives will be the next phase of project.

12. How album came to Norwood School is still a mystery, at least we now know whose military service it recorded, the nurse in the photos might have been an English Nurse stationed in Egypt his visit to the UK have been to meet her parents. There is no record of his wife Grace Adeline Lyndon (married 9.5.1920) born in SA or as a nurse in SA or as an Australian Army Nurse. British Army Nursing Records now needs to be looked at.

References

1. Australian War Memorial Biographical Database

2. With the 9th Light Horse in the Great War. Maj T.H. Darley

3. 9th Light Horse No Roll compiled by the Ladies Auxiliary 9th Light Horse Association

4. 9th Light Horse Regiment 1st AIF 1914-1918 AIF Base Records Office 1948

5. South Australian& Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc Birth Registrations 1842 to 1906 SA Marriages Registrations 1917 to 1937

Lieutenant Colonel Sven Kuusk RFD, qs(us), Retd, Curator, Army Museum of South Australia