Opalotype portrait of Australian Army Medical Corps serviceman, Leslie James Sproul

Leslie James Sproul was born on 28 December 1907 in Port Fairy, Victoria. He was the third of five sons born to David and Edith Melita Sproul.
He enlisted in the Australian Army on 24 April 1940 at Caulfield, and was allocated service number VX12864. The enlistment photo from his Victorian paybook is attached (AWM P02468.287).

According to the AWM, Leslie James Sproul was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the Sandakan POW camp in north Borneo, having been transferred there from Singapore as a part of B Force. The 1494 POW's that made up B Force were transported from Changi on 7 July 1942 on board the tramp ship Ubi Maru, arriving in Sandakan Harbour on 18 July 1942. Corporal Sproul, aged 37, died from illness as a prisoner of the Japanese on 3 May 1945. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial Panel 25.

He was attached to 13th Australian General Hospital, Australian Army Medical Corps at his death.

The opalotype is a positive photographic image on milk glass, commonly with applied color.The opalotype process was invented in 1857 by Joseph Glover and John Bold the Younger, and was primarily used from 1860 to the 1940s.
This example probably dates to the early 1940s and may be Leslie Sproul's enlistment photo from April 1940, given that there are no colour patches on his uniform.