Group portrait of Australian hospital patient 'George' flanked by two Italian men, including Romeo Gallo, in Udine, Italy

Place Europe: Italy, Udine
Accession Number P12694.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Maker Quinto Chiaro Fotografo
Place made Italy: Udine
Date made March 1942
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Group portrait of an Australian serviceman, 'George', and two young Italian men, taken in a hospital where George was a patient. He is wearing pyjamas and his head appears to be bandaged or in a cap; the Italian men are seated on either side of the bed in which George rests. The man on the left is identified as Romeo Gallo. The photograph was attached to a letter from Gallo, written in 1952, addressed to the Rats of Tobruk Association asking for help in identifying the Australian. In his letter Gallo says that the picture was taken while he was a patient at 'St Mary' Hospital in Udine, Northern Italy, where he became friends with George, who Gallo believed to be in the 6th Division and wounded in the Tobruk campaign. Gallo says in the letter that he is now a "new Australian" and hopes to make contact with his friend. On the back of the photograph is written "DIV Topi del Deserto" [Mice of Tobruk Division]. 'George' (probably from the 9th, not 6th, Division) may have been a prisoner of war at Campo 57, Grupignano, near the city of Udine, where many Australians who had been captured in North Africa were held until the Italian surrender in 1943.