[GALLIPOLI] Photographs of the Third Australian General Hospital taken on Lemnos (1915-16) and in Egypt (1916).

Group of 13 (thirteen) gelatin silver print photographs in uniform 110 x 150 mm format, versos all with a blue wet stamp ‘Photographed by A. W. Savage, No. 3 Australian General Hospital (Not to be used for Publication)’, and with a fully contemporary handwritten caption (often with a date) in violet ink; the group comprises 11 photographs taken on Lemnos between August 1915 and January 1916, and two taken in Egypt early in 1916; occasional bleeding of the ink from the versos, one print with small loss at one corner, otherwise condition is very good; the prints are unmounted. [TOGETHER WITH] Two gelatin silver prints both attributable to Savage, but taken with different cameras, one in format 83 x 133 mm, a sepia tone interior shot captioned in pencil on the verso ‘Lemnos 3 AGH AIF SICK NURSES’ (fine condition), the other in format 90 x 145 mm, inscribed in ink on the verso ‘Sister Leitch with convalescent boys’ (i.e. Queensland nurse Sister Lilian Leitch, OBE, 1887-1967, who served in the Australian Army Nursing Service on Lemnos and Egypt), no date or location but possibly taken in Egypt (discoloured at edges).

Provenance: Elizabeth Cecilia McNally, aka “The Duchess of Spring Hill” (1909-1996), legendary Brisbane antiques dealer and collector; private collection, Queensland.

The following is an excellent overview of Savage’s war experience and photographs, by Elise Edmonds, Coordinator, Pictorial Collection, State Library of New South Wales:

‘Albert William Savage was a professional photographer from Moore Park in Sydney. He enlisted at the age of 25, but was marked unfit for active service due to poor eyesight. Savage was posted as a private to the Third Australian General Hospital and took many photographs of the staff, patients and hospital surroundings. He, along with the rest of the hospital staff, left Australia on board RMS Mooltan on 15 May 1915.

The hospital was established on Lemnos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, near Gallipoli in August 1915 with forty nurses arriving on 8 August. They were piped ashore by bagpipes and marched to their basic accommodation which consisted of rows of tents. The hospital began receiving patients the next day, with around 200 wounded arriving from Gallipoli. Over the next few days the numbers of patients increased dramatically, with around 800 patients being treated.

The steady increase in casualties was due to the August offensives that were taking place on the Gallipoli Peninsula and most of the casualties were suffering from gunshot wounds.

After the evacuation of Allied troops from the Gallipoli Peninsula in December 1915, the hospital staff left Lemnos for Egypt in January 1916. They later moved from Egypt to Brighton, England, and then to Abbeville, France where they remained until 1919.

Albert Savage documented all aspects of the Hospital while at Lemnos: the staff, patients, the tent accommodation and the medical facilities. In April 1917 Savage transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and worked as a stores clerk. He returned to Australia in November 1919.’