Photograph album of 1558 Driver Sidney James Blay, 6th Field Artillery Battery

Photograph album consisting of 61 photographs, 2 small maps and 2 hand-written poems across 24 pages. The collection was compiled by 1558 Driver Sidney James Blay, 6th Field Artillery Battery and relates to his service on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915. Several of the photographs are numbered and signed by an E.H.C. Russell (1256 Edmond Henry Cecil Russell, 23rd Battalion) and each photograph is captioned by Driver Blay. Photographs include landscape scenes of sites such as Sulva Bay, Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, as well as various dugouts, trenches and graves across Gallipoli.

A labourer, from Beaufort, Victoria, Sidney James Blay had served with the 71st Infantry, Citizens Military Forces, prior to his enlistment in the Australian Imperial Force on 21 September 1914, aged 19. Joining the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade, he embarked overseas on 21 October 1914. Driver Blay transferred to the 6th Field Artillery Battery and served at Gallipoli until the evacuation. Following a brief illness, Driver Blay rejoined the unit in France, continuing to serve on the Western Front until the end of war. During this time, he was severely gassed on two separate occassions, once being evacuated to Ontario Military Hospital, England. Driver Blay returned to Australia and was discharged on 27 Feburary 1919.

64 mixed items sighted in this album.