Studio portrait of two Australian Prisoners of War (POW) at Altdamm, Germany (now Poland). ...

Studio portrait of two Australian Prisoners of War (POW) at Altdamm, Germany (now Poland). Identified on left is 903 Private (Pte) Benjamin Joseph Gannaway, from Wagin, Western Australia, and on right is 3903 Pte Melbourne Hubert Randolph Matthews, from Perth, Western Australia, both of the 11th Battalion. Pte Gannaway enlisted at the age of 29 on 27 August 1914 and embarked for overseas on 2 November 1914 aboard HMAT Ascanius. He was wounded in action at Gallipoli but recovered from the gun shot wound to his arm and went on to serve on the Western Front. He was captured at Lagnicourt, France, on 15 April 1917 and held in a number of different POW camps in Germany. On 8 September 1917 he wrote from Friedrichsfeld "Have had another move, last place I was working for the Commandant building a large ... shed. Most of us working here in a large timber mill. The food is much better and work not so hard." Pte Gannaway died of influenza on 4 November 1918 and was buried at the Garrison Cemetery Stettin. He was later re-interred at the South Western Cemetery at Stahnsdorf, Berlin. Pte Matthews enlisted at the age of 20 on 30 August 1915 and embarked for overseas on 22 November 1915 aboard RMS Mongolia. He was captured at Fleuricourt, France, on 16 April 1917 and held as a POW until repatriated to England on 15 December 1918. Pte Matthews arrived back in Australia on 17 March 1919. One of a series of over 400 photographs sent by Australian POWs in German camps to Miss M. E. Chomley, Secretary, Prisoners Department, Australian-British Red Cross Society, London. Original album housed in AWM Research Centre at RC00864, Album image number 269.