[PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM] Souvenir of Palestine, compiled by Trooper J. Ellis, 7th Light Horse. 

[Cover title]. [s.l. : s.n., s.d.]. Photograph album. Oblong folio, 230 x 320 mm; original red cloth over boards, upper board with gilt-lettered title surmounted by the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces badge (also in gilt); front pastedown inscribed in ink ‘Sent by Dr. Goggins’; containing 96 black-and-white gelatin silver prints in uniform 60 x 100 mm format, window-mounted four-per side on [12] card leaves, all with printed captions on the mounts, and including images taken by Trooper Ellis in Gaza, Beersheba, Asluj, Ramleh, Ras-Deiran, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jericho, Hills of Judea, the Jordan Valley, Es-Salt, and Amman, recording the aftermath of actions against Ottoman Turkish, German and Italian forces; the album’s contents have been exceptionally well preserved, with the prints and mounts in virtually flawless condition; the binding has some light staining to the lower board, but is otherwise likewise in excellent condition.

An important photographic record of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade’s campaigns in the Middle East during World War One.

Trove locates no copies of Souvenir of Palestine in Australian institutional collections.

Trooper Ellis compiled a similar album, Souvenir of Sinai & Palestine, which has entirely different content (NLA; SLNSW; SLQ; SLSA; Monash University Library). Concerning that album, the Australian Light Horse Studies Centre website states that it was self-published by Trooper J. Ellis (7th Light Horse Regiment, 2nd Light Horse Brigade) and that the photographs were all taken by Ellis and cover the period from the Battle of Romani to the Third Battle of Gaza (August 1916 – October 1917). We believe that both of Ellis’s albums are likely to have been published immediately after the war, in late 1918. All of the surviving examples of these albums have an inscription on the front pastedown with the formula ‘Sent by [xxxx]’ – just like the album we offer here – which suggests they may have been produced and sold in London and that they were then mailed to family or friends back in Australia. The SLNSW catalogue entry for Souvenir of Sinai & Palestine states: ‘Ellis was the photographer, caption writer and self-publisher of the album.’

The 2nd Light Horse Brigade was raised as part of the 2nd Contingent of the AIF. It was organised into three regiments – the 5th, 6th and 7th – each of approximately 520 men. The brigade’s three regiments were drawn from Queensland (5th) and New South Wales (6th and 7th). Trooper J. Ellis must therefore have enlisted in New South Wales. All of these units were raised throughout September and October 1914. The brigade embarked at Sydney for the Middle East in December 1914.