Summary

Photograph album containing 139 photographs. Inside front cover owner's name: 'Lillie Mckenna'. World War I. Contains photographs of 7th Battalion training in Mena Camp, Egypt, and sight-seeing, 1914-1915.

As the name E.A. Mckenna or Captain Mckenna appears on a number of the photographs it is likely that the album relates to his service.

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 herself.

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