Kodak Jiffy Six 20 Series II camera: Private G N Harding, 2/19 Australian Infantry Battalion

Kodak Jiffy Six 20 (taking size 620 film) Series II folding camera with a folding leatherette bellows accompanied by two retracting levers per side; a Twindar (Periscopic), 105mm f/8 filter slip-on lens; two shutter lever located adjacent at the rear of the lens plate; two viewfinders on the lens plate; a fold down lever adjacent to the lens plate for supporting the bellows; a handle; a release button for bellows mechanism; a sliding catch for the rear hinged panel (for accessing the film); and a large knob for advancing the film. The pressed steel body is clad in black leatherette; the owner has had his initials (G.N.H) gold blocked across the leatherette just above the bellows opening.

The camera is accompanied by the brown sewn leather case, with a nickel-plated latch on the front for opening. The case originally was supplied with a shoulder strap; there is now only a short length left. The interior is lined with brown leatherette; the owner has engraved his name and number ('G HARDING / NX55430 / A.I.F.') with a pen on the inside of the lid.

Kodak Jiffy Six 20 Series II camera and case relating to Private George Norman Harding, 2/19 Australian Infantry Battalion. Harding used the camera to take photographs in Malaya in 1941 and carried it with him during the fighting at Bakri, Muar and Parit Sulong.

In January 1942, as the situation looked bleak for the Allied troops, he posted the camera home to his family. He was later taken prisoner by the Japanese and was sent with F Force to work on the Thai-Burma Railway in April 1943. He worked in the northern Thailand camps of Konkoita, Tiamonta and Takanun before being evacuated to Wanyai Hospital Camp in August 1943. He was then taken by barge to Kanchanaburi where he died on 5 October 1943 from beri-beri.