Members of the 2nd Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory pose behind two of the unit's trucks, ...

Accession Number	P03821.001
Collection type	Photograph
Object type	Black & white - Film copy negative
Maker	Burnside, Kennedy Byron
Place made	Singapore
Date made	c February 1942
Conflict	Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright	Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain

Accession Number

P03821.001

Collection type

Photograph

Object type

Black & white - Film copy negative

Maker

Burnside, Kennedy Byron

Place made

Singapore

Date made

c February 1942

Conflict

Second World War, 1939-1945

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

This item is in the Public Domain

Members of the 2nd Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory pose behind two of the unit's trucks, shortly before the fall of Singapore. This photograph was taken by VX45320 Major (Maj) Kennedy Byron Burnside, Australian Army Medical Corps, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory, studying tropical diseases. Burnside was in Singapore with the 2/13th Australian General Hospital when Singapore fell to the Japanese in early 1942. He was interned at the Selarang Barracks, Changi prisoner of war camp, where the unit set up a laboratory. Maj Burnside hid an 8mm Bell and Howell film camera and a 35 mm Leica in the camp and recorded prison life. In August 1943, a change in prison command led to a tightening of the camp's discipline and punishment regime, and Burnside's negatives, cameras, and diaries were hidden in 15-inch brass shell cases, along with many other Australian records. The shell cases had been salvaged from the British naval guns that were emplaced in the Changi area and destroyed by the garrison. The items were buried according to star sightings, which were again used in September 1945 to unearth 12 of the 13 buried cases.