Camera storage travelling case: Lieutenant Alan Queale, Official Photographer, BCOF

Camera and equipment storage case. The case carcass is wood, reinforced with bands of steel and covered in a tweed-pattern heavy duty cotton open weave cloth. The eight upper and lower corners are protected with leather, each attached with three nickel plated steel rivets. The closing latch on the upper surface was originally supplied with a keyed lock, although the key is no longer present. The upper storage bays are each hinged on a pair of decorative hinges, and one side is additionally clamped with a swing latch on either side. Both the hinges and all three latches are made from nickel-plated steel. The case is equipped with a Bakelite handle.

An aluminium name plate, screwed to the upper half of the case, is engraved in three different styles. The first is the owner's name: "LIEUT ALAN QUEALE. QX6717" in an professional engraver's hand. The second style differs in size across the engraving, is far less professional and may have been done by Queale: "OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER / AUSTRALIAN MILITARY HISTORY SECTION." The third is Japanese script and translates as "A-ran Ku-wa-ei-ru" - this is an attempt to use Chinese/Japanese characters to spell out "Alan Queale" phonetically.

The case opens just under half way down, presenting two lidded upper storage bays that fold down against the outside of the case and are bound on the outside in green leatherette and on the inside with purple felt. The lids of these storage bays are each secured with two leather straps, each equipped with a nickel plated steel snap fastener. The lower interior is essentially a box, again bound in purple felt; this has four internal divisions of various dimensions.

Alan Queale was born in Boonah, Queensland on 16 November 1908 and enlisted in June 1940. Under service number QX6717 he served in the Middle East with 2/1 and 2/2 Ordnance Stores as a technical storeman from September 1940 until January 1943, reaching the rank of sergeant.

During his time in the Middle East, he used a simple Ensign Double 8 still camera to privately produce six albums of photographic portraits and studies of buildings, a format he would reproduce when he worked in Japan. Arriving back in Australia, he was transferred to 2 Base Ordnance Depot in Melbourne before being transferred to Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) in March 1944, serving with them in New Guinea (an experience he found "rubbish"). He applied for a transfer to the Military History Section in July 1945, where he worked with No 2 Military History Field Team in New Guinea until February 1946.

Queale worked with the Military History Section (MHS) from 1946-47 in Japan, photographically documenting the activities of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) and aspects of Japanese life post-war, including the demilitarisation of the country, before being made the Officer in Charge (with the rank of lieutenant) of the MHS from February 1947 to March 1949. His photos from his service in the Middle East as well as Japan are searchable under his name on the AWM database.

After he was discharged from the Army in August 1949, Queale continued to take and collect photographs, and became well-known in Queensland for his work as an amateur historian and collector of art and artifacts. His work is notable for its unusually fine aesthetic values, as well as for what it reveals about Australia’s view of Asia in the immediate post-war period.

This camera case appears to be an aftermarket version for professional use; one other version of this case has been seen with the same layout, but the outside is bound with black leatherette rather than cloth. The name plate would appear to have been made after Alan Queale was made OIC of the Military History Section in March 1947, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant, but the case is probably earlier.