Josiah Barnes collection of First World War negatives and prints

Informal group portrait of members of the 15th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion, on a wharf at Port Melbourne before embarking on the troopship HMAT Shropshire A9. Identified by their kitbags are, 5677 Private (Pte) Percy Pepper of Lakes Entrance, Vic, (front row, third from left); 5642 Pte Frederick Charles Larter of Hawthorn, Vic, (front row, fourth from left); 5586 Private (Pte) Herbert Charles Dunn, of North Melbourne, Vic, (front, lying with kit bag and bugle); 5607 Pte Henry William Galbraith of North Fitzroy, Vic, (front row, second from right); and 5610 Pte Robert Gray (front row, far right). Pte Pepper, an Aboriginal serviceman, enlisted in Warrnambool, Vic, on 8 May 1916, at the age of 38. After serving with the 21st Battalion on the Western Front and being wounded in October 1917, Pte Pepper was attached to the Australian Employment Company. In May 1918 he applied to return to Australia where his wife, who was caring for their seven children, had become seriously ill. His application was approved and he was also granted a discharge. Prior to the First World War, Pte Pepper, an athlete himself, coached his brother in law, Harry Thorpe, in hurdles at a track at Lake Tyers, Vic. 5459 Corporal Harry Thorpe MM, also an Aboriginal serviceman, died of wounds on 9 August 1918, in France.