Princess Royal Fortress Military Museum > Records

First World War Black and White Photograph of Unknown Soldier at Grave of Trooper Herbert Alexander BELL 932

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1916

Overview

A small black and white photograph showing a soldier of a Light Horse Regiment standing with two horses behind a gravesite. The soldier is wearing a shirt and trousers with arm sleeves rolled up as well as a sun helmet and a bandolier. The horse he is holding has an eye shade of hanging cords. The gravesite has a wooden cross with the name of the dead soldier inscribed on the horizontal post. The vertical post has an inscription, but the words above the horizontal post are unreadable. In front of the cross on top of the actual grave of sand are rows of bullets. There are also two cylinders placed on either side of the cross. The grave site has an open fence surrounding it and the soldier is standing behind this. The image has a small border and the photograph is in good condition with some staining on the reverse.

Historical information

The photograph shows the grave of Trooper Herbert Alexander BELL 923. Herbert enlisted on 13 January 1915 and joined the 10th Light Horse Regiment 5th Reinforcement. His unit sailed from Fremantle on board HMAT A20 Hororata on 26 April 1915. He initially served at Gallipoli and then Egypt. He was killed in action on 9 August 1916 at age 21in the advance towards the Turkish positions at Mushalfat, Suez Canal zone. His gravesite was located 300 yards NW from Hod-el-Bada and his remains were exhumed and reinterred at the Kantara War memorial Cemetery, Egypt, Plot B. 75.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-12-2022.1.40

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Photographic Paper

Width

61 mm

Height or length