Summary

Photograph album, 86 pages, containing 107 images and a newspaper cutting. Inside the front cover is the name 'Lillie Mckenna'. Contains photographs of 7th Battalion in Egypt, 1915. World War I.

The album relates to the service of Captain Edward Albert Mckenna. Edward Albert McKenna, born in Castlemaine, Victoria, was a 36-year-old department manager of soft goods when he enlisted on 17 August 1914. He lived at 5 St James Buildings, William Street, Melbourne, and had been married to Elizabeth Mary 'Lillie' McKenna since 1910. He embarked from Melbourne 19 October 1914 on the HMAT Hororata, second in command of a company in the 7th (Vic.) Battalion.

Captain McKenna was killed in action in Gallipoli around 25-30 April 1915, aged 37. His military records indicate an unusually large number of possessions for a soldier (although perhaps not so for an officer), including seven shirts, a pillow, six towels, a travelling rug, gumboots, pyjamas and slippers. Also amongst his possessions was a camera, and although no photographic prints or albums are mentioned in his military record, his trunk and 'parcels' may have contained them. These may have been left in storage in Egypt - Granville Ryrie, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, records leaving his 'trunks here' [in Egypt] when he left for Gallipoli in mid-May (letter to his wife, 15 May, quoted in Gallipoli Sniper, John Hamilton, p.129).

Captain McKenna was buried at 7 Lone Pine Cemetery, Gallipoli. His details appear on the honours roll on the web page of the Australian War Memorial.

It is likely that his widow Lillie (Elizabeth) McKenna compiled the albums. The hand-writing on the back of the photographs differs from the inscriptions under each photograph, and it is possible that Edward inscribed them himself since they include eyewitness detail, and at least one uses first person voice. If this is the case, he would have had them printed in Egypt - their light-weight paper, sometimes in poor condition, adds weight to this possibility. Lillie is likely to have assembled the album later, and written the more basic inscriptions on the album pages under the photographs.

Description of Content

Photograph album, hard-cover with dark green cloth cover. Embossed front with letter 'S' and horizontal lines around. 86 pages (43 leaves), grey paper, torn away from cover. Images adhered along the edges with tape. Inscriptions written on album pages or backs of images.

Physical Description

Photograph photograph album with heavy grey cover, embossed with a geometric shape. The album contains 86 pages, within which 107 images and a newspaper cutting are housed. Most photos are attached with a single paper hinge; several at the back of the album are detached. Album pages are inscribed by hand; a different hand has written inscriptions on the backs of the photographs. Album cover is fragile and has broken away from the spine; several pages are also loose. At least one photograph has broken apart.

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