We have recently received donations of items relating to two men who are listed on war memorials in Mosman. The first photograph of Jack Weston Attwood turned up in a bundle of clothes in a NSW country op-shop. The other is a photograph postcard showing Francis Herbert Semple and another soldier, Norm, on camels in front of a sphinx and pyramid in Egypt dated 1916.

Captain Malley in his distinctively-painted Sopwith Camel. (Source: Peter Scholer)

Previously unseen photographs of the Mosman boy who fought the Red Baron’s Flying Circus have come to light thanks to our Anzac centenary project.

The Fort of DOUAUMONT. Postcard ca. 1920. George Eastman House Collection

Mort pour la France has a weight and tone not dissimilar to lest we forget. It is reserved for those who have died in the service of their country. A chance discovery when searching the Trove newspapers database has revealed a Mosman man who fought with the French and bears this sombre honorific.

Finding the fragments that complete a picture is one of the rewards of digging in the archives. The diaries of two Mosman men have revealed for John and Vicki Andrews the deep regard felt for a forebear by the men of his command.

Who took the candid photos we see today? Were they official photographers? Bill Frost takes a look at photography at the front.