In January 1919, eight families received a letter from Major Lean, Officer-in-Charge, Base Records in Melbourne. It enclosed a photograph, taken at San Stefano prisoner-of-war camp in Constantinople.  San Stefano was located where Istanbul international airport now stands.

Major Lean wrote that it was “forwarded as a memento of the trials this soldier has undergone whilst serving in the Australian Imperial Force.  I trust he will be spared to return none the worse for his trying experience.”

The Photograph, San Stefano Camp, Constantinople, 30 June 1918. (AWM C01052)

All the men returned. I have previously told the stories of some of them, listed at the end of this pot.

This post is about Private Joseph Cahir 14^th Battalion (standing far right),  Private Harry Foxcroft, 14th Battalion  (sitting far right) and  Trooper Robert Malcolm McColl (seated, centre), 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment.

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Lance Corporal David Boyle, 14^th Battalion, 8 August 1915 – Hill 971

David Boyle was wounded and captured during the attack by Colonel Monash’s 4^th Brigade on Hill 971 – during the final, desperate but unsuccessful battle for control of the commanding ridgeline at Gallipoli that commenced on 6 August 1915. It seems that Boyle was left behind in the disorderly retreat by the 4^th Brigade from below Hill 971.

His mother Christina wrote an extraordinary letter to the Red Cross Australian Wounded & Missing Bureau in April 1918 – run by the wonderful Vera Deakin, daughter of Alfred Deakin, former Prime Minister of Australia.

Mrs Boyle commended the work of the Bureau, but like all mothers, she wanted to know what was happening to her boy – she feared he was going mad.

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