Portrait of 88 Private (Pte) Bertram Edward Hoult, 26th Battalion sitting on a camel in front of ...

Portrait of 88 Private (Pte) Bertram Edward Hoult, 26th Battalion sitting on a camel in front of The Sphinx. Pte Hoult, a sawyer or timber worker fron Nanango, Queensland, enlisted on 1 February 1915. He embarked from Brisbane aboard HMAT Ascanius (A11) on 24 May 1915. He served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front where he was wounded and captured at Pozieres on 29 July 1916. Still suffering from a leg wound he was repatriated to England via the neutral Netherlands in February 1918. Hospitalised immediately, his left foot was amputated in March 1918 and despite continued treatment his left leg had to be amputated in Sepember 1919. He returned to Australia two months later. A message on the reverse and dated 23 April 1916 reads: "Dear Graham, just a line hoping this finds you quite well. I am at the above address [17th General Hospital, France] on account of a touch of the mumps. This is the photo I promised to send that Sunday out at the Pyramids in Egypt. I thought this hardly good enough to send you but I made the promise I must keep. I am still with the same battalion. Kind regards from your friend B. Hoult". The Graham mentioned was possibly 65 Pte Ernest Graham also of the 26th Battalion who enlisted and embarked with Pte Hoult. Pte Graham returned to Australia in July 1917.