Outdoor portrait of Private (Pte) Thomas Sydney Harrison, 6th Field Company Engineers, at his ...

Accession Number P09871.009
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Digital file TIFF
Maker Unknown
Place made United Kingdom: England, Surrey
Date made December 1916-January 1917
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Outdoor portrait of Private (Pte) Thomas Sydney Harrison, 6th Field Company Engineers, at his family home at Walton on Thames during a period of leave. A bandage can be seen under the left cuff of his jacket, probably the legacy of a gunshot wound to the arm in July 1916 . Born in England, Harrison migrated to Australia in 1910. A carpenter from Geelong in civilian life, Pte Harrison (service number 862) embarked with D Company, 21st Battalion, from Melbourne aboard HMAT Ulysses (A38) on 10 May 1915. During his service Harrison was allocated a new service number, 4414. He transferred to the 5th and 8th Field Company Engineers at Gallipoli. A keen amateur photographer, Harrison took photographs in Egypt and on Gallipoli. In September 1916 on the Western Front, he transferred to the 6th Field Company Engineers and was promoted to Lance Corporal (L Cpl). On 6 May 1917 L Cpl Harrison was killed in action in France, aged 32. He was buried north east of Albert but after the war his grave could not be located and he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. (One of a series of photographs in the collection of 4414 Lance Corporal Thomas Sydney Harrison.)