Watson, Stanley Holm (Lieutenant Colonel, b.1887 - d.1985)

Collection relating to the First World War service of Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Holm Watson, 2nd Division Signal Company, Australian Imperial Forces, Gallipoli, France, and Belgium, 1914-1919.

Collection consists of one maroon, faux leather bound scrapbook with gold-embossed highlights, including the title "Fragments of the War from Egypt, Gallipoli and France 1914 - 1919."

The scrapbook begins with documents sent out to troops about to embark for Gallipoli immediately prior to the landing. It then features documents issued to soldiers and officers about the situation at Gallipoli, including translations of captured Turkish documents, congratulatory documents for the soldiers on Gallipoli, orders for advances, detailed maps and diagrams of communication posts and their wiring, a pencil on paper sketch of a 'holes' or sleeping trenches at Gallipoli. Next, the scrapbook skips straight to documents relating to the Battle of Amiens, containing documents very similar to the style described above, only pertaining to the Hundred Days Offensive. One notable addition, however, are several detailed captured plans of German communication wiring.

Following the documents relating to offensives at Gallipoli and in the Somme, the scrapbook then contains approximately 70 editions of the 'Peninsula Press', a troopship serial issued daily that was printed on Imbros Island by G.H.Q. Printing Section Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. These span the period 18 May to 18 October 1915. They discuss world issues, including reports on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, war news on most fronts, and Australian acts of heroism on Gallipoli.

Next is a copy of the Canadian Troopship serial, 'The Listening Post', dated 21 April 1916, containing satirical articles, with select genuine news pieces. This is followed by a copy of 'The Dump', an Australian troopship serial issued for the 23rd Division, volume 1, no.1, dated Christmas 1915. 'The Dump' features satirical articles, poems, and cartoons relating to soldiers' lives in the 23rd Division.

The scrapbook ends with a singular woodcut image of a windmill entitled "Somewhere in France", and eight pages of aerial photography, most of which show trenches. These are notable clearly show the curved, zig-zag, and staggered patterns that First World War trenches used in order to limit the effects of explosive devices that landed within them.