Korea. 14 March 1954. Informal portrait of Private (Pte) Darmenia (Abdul) Christian, 'A' Company, ...

Korea. 14 March 1954. Informal portrait of Private (Pte) Darmenia (Abdul) Christian, 'A' Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR). Pte Christian joined the Army last April and in November he came to Korea. HOBJ4887 ORIGINAL BCFK PUBLIC RELATIONS CAPTION: "Call out "Abdul," around A Company lines of 3 Bn RAR and the only Egyptian in the Australian Army will respond-Pte Darmenia Christian. Ex-Egyptian would be more correct, because Christian, born at Port Said, whose "home address" is Australia Avenue, Matraville, Sydney, is now an Australian himself. He was born at Port Said 21 years ago. His father is Maltese and his mother French. He was educated at an English School in Port Said and at Marseilles where he graduated as an engineering mechanic. Whenever he had a holiday he travelled. He has been through France and Italy; he has visited Algiers, Tunis and Morocco. During the war he met many Australian soldiers. They told him about Australia. He wanted to see the place and he wanted more than anything else to be an Australian soldier. So he migrated to New South Wales. He worked for three months as a mechanic at Macc (?) until he found his feet and in April last year he joined the army. In November he came to Korea and now he is serving with A Coy. "It's a great life I have lots of fun and I have made the best friends I have ever had in my life," he said. "The other digs tease me a lot but I can take it. They call me "Abdul" and other nicknames and they are always asking me how my camel is. All I can say is that the digger is No 1, and so is the life in the Australian Army". And "Abdul" has his own sly joke at the expense of his new friends. He has invented a non-existent camel which he has named "Harvey." So well has he developed the theme of the well known stage play and film of that name that at times he nearly has his mates fooled as he ducks out of an unpleasant job to feed or water "Harvey".