Grafmatic 23 film holder: Lieutenant Alan Queale, Official Photographer, BCOF

'Grafmatic' 2 ¼ inch x 3 ¼ inch film holder marked on the reverse with "Grafmatic / TRADE MARK / FILM HOLDER / "23" GRAPHIC / MANUFACTURED BY GRAFLEX INC, ROCHESTER 8, NEW YORK, U.S.A." The holder holds six individual sheets of film, loaded by the user. The mechanism incorporates a sliding in and out motion activated by a handle to move the exposed sheet and produce another, while a red indicator will pop up telling the user whether the film is in the exposed position or covered; a film indicator tells the user which exposure they are on. This holder can be slid and clamped onto the back of the Speed Graphic camera.

The holder has been hand marked "2" on a square of self adhesive paper.

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 Grafmatic film holder was designed to hold six sheets of film (loaded by the user) for the Graflex 2 ¼ inch x 3 ¼ inch Miniature Speed Graphic press camera and was mounted on the rear on the camera.