Group portrait of all the original officers and men of the 11th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, AIF. The ...

Group portrait of all the original officers and men of the 11th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, AIF. The group of over 685 soldiers are spread over the side of the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) near Mena camp. Officers identified in the front row are, left to right: 2nd Lieutenant (Lt) F P Strickland; 2nd Lt J Newman; Major (Maj) S R Roberts; Lt J H Morgan; Captain (Capt) J S Denton; Capt A E J Croly; Capt Charles A Barnes; Lt K McLennan; Padre Fahey; Lt (later Capt) A P H Corley (later killed in action 17 September 1915); Lt (later Capt) C A La Nauze (later killed in action 28 June 1915); Capt J H Peck; Capt W R Annear; Capt R R Reilly; 2nd Lt M L Reid; Lt D H McDonald; Lieutenant Colonel J L Johnston; Capt R W Everett; Maj E A D Brockman (later MC); Capt E T Brennan; Capt R L Leane; 2nd Lt A H Darnell; 2nd Lt A H Priestley; Lt W H Rockliff; 2nd Lt J H Cooke (later killed in action 2 May 1915 ); 2nd Lt H James (later MC); 2nd Lt C F Buttle; 2nd Lt H H Walker (sitting); Lt J Williams (top). Missing are: 2nd Lt S H Jackson, Lt A R Selby and 2nd Lt A H MacFarlane. Capt Barnes records in his diary: 'After Church this morning the whole Battalion was marched up to the Pyramid (Old Cheops) and we had a photo took or at least several of them.' Amidst the training undertaken by the men, there was time on Sundays, days off and evenings when leave was granted to visit local sites of interest such as the pyramids, the Citadel and the many mosques in Cairo. The trams struggled to keep up with the demand and local transport such as carriages were heavily used. The cafes and restaurants of Cairo were also heavily patronised.

Curatorial note:
This well known and very popular photograph was originally lent to the Australian War Memorial in the 1930s by Colonel K McLennan MBE. A copy negative was made, accessioned as A02875 and Colonel McLennan's original print was returned.
Today this copy negative is limiting the quality and size of prints we can make. Over the years the Memorial has acquired two original 38.7cm x 29cm prints that are in better condition than our old copy negative, although both do exhibit some physical damage. To make this image we have scanned both original prints and combined them together; fortunately the physical damage was in different parts of the prints. The result is a higher quality image than our copy negative, with limited evidence of any physical damage. As this image is held as a high resolution scan it is only available as a digital print or as a file on a CD.