Studio portrait of ex-Prisoner of War (POW) 6014 Private (Pte) Percy Edwin Ford, 12th Battalion, ...

Studio portrait of ex-Prisoner of War (POW) 6014 Private (Pte) Percy Edwin Ford, 12th Battalion, from Hobart, Tasmania, who enlisted on 1 May 1916 at the age of 21. Pte Ford embarked for overseas on 8 August 1916 aboard HMAT Ballarat and was captured at Lagnicourt, France, on 15 April 1917. He was held as a POW in Germany and wrote from Wahn on 1 May 1917 "Just a few lines to let you know that I am still in the land of the living. We are in an enclosure behind the lines and we have no blankets to sleep with and the food is very poor. We have for breakfast one slice of bread and coffee without milk or sugar, dinner watery soup and tea one slice of bread and fat and coffee. We have to work on this. The officer here tells us it is owing to the British not answering a note the Germans sent two months ago, we have to put up with this and when they answer it we will have a better time. I don't like writing now about it, but don't you worry, I'll live through it." Pte Ford was repatriated to England on 18 December 1918 and arrived back in Australia on 5 July 1919. The handwritten note on the back of the photograph reads "Kind regards for a bright and happy New Year, your sincerely, 6014 Pte P.E. Ford, 12 Battn AIF, 3 Coy, 13 Hut, Verne Citadel, Portland, Dorset." 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 370.