Outdoor portrait of two Australian Prisoners of War (POW) at Schneidemuhl POW camp, Germany. ...

Outdoor portrait of two Australian Prisoners of War (POW) at Schneidemuhl POW camp, Germany. Identified on the left is 1612 Private (Pte) Joseph Samuel Summers, 13th Battalion from North Sydney, NSW who enlisted at the age of 34 on 21 January 1915 and embarked for overseas on 11 February 1915 aboard HMAT Seang Bee. He served at Gallipoli before going on to serve on the Western Front where he was captured at Riencourt, France, on 11 April 1917 and admitted to Mons Hospital with rheumatism. He was later transferred to Schneidemuhl POW camp where he was held until repatriated to England on 1 December 1918. Pte Summers arrived back in Australia on 23 April 1919. Identified on the right is 4892 Pte Herbert Summerfield, 54th Battalion, from Mudgee, NSW who enlisted at the age of 20 on 30 August 1915 and embarked for overseas with the 2nd Battalion on 8 March 1916 aboard HMAT Star of England. He was captured at Fleurbaix, France, on 20 July 1916 and held as a POW in Germany. Pte Summerfield was repatriated to England on 1 December 1918 and arrived back in Australia on 23 April 1919. One of a series of over 80 photographs of Allied POWs in the camp at Schneidemuhl, given to 3235 Corporal (Cpl) James Skelly, 55th Battalion, from Rockdale, NSW, by fellow POWs as a souvenir of their time together. Cpl Skelly was a self-described “special correspondent” for the Australian Red Cross while at Schneidemuhl and originally donated these photographs to the Ramsgate R.S.L. The original is stored in the AWM archive store.