Entrance to Officers' Mess, Mrs Chisholms' canteen, Kantara 1918

Depicts the entrance to the Officers Mess at Mrs Chisholms canteen, Kantara, Suez Canal. This expanded to include dormitories and dining-rooms and eventually had the capacity for handling thousand of men. For a very small price they found care, comfort, food, and the luxury of showers. Most of all they were provided with a small touch of home. Alice Chisholm was the wife of a prominent pastoralist from near Goulburn, New South Wales. Concerned for the welfare of her son Bertram, who was serving as a light horseman on Gallipoli, she sailed for Egypt in mid-1915. Bertram was wounded in action about this time; he later returned to his regiment.
Observing the lack of facilities for the troops in Cairo, Chisholm opened a canteen nearby at Heliopolis. It was so well received that she opened another at Port Said. Then, with two like-minded women, she established a popular canteen at the Suez Canal crossing at Kantara.
Throughout the war Chisholm put a lot of her own money into the canteens. She used the profits from the canteen operations to provide amenities on the troopships carrying the men home after the war. She also later helped fund the establishment of the Returned Soldiers' Club in Goulburn. For her war work she was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 1920.