Description
Object description
Album containing 162 black and white photographic prints relating to the service of Albert Johnson with the Loyal Suffolk Hussars, Machine Gun Corps and Royal Air Force during the First World War. Also 1 negative and 40 loose black and white prints. For Johnson's service with the yeomanry there are a small number of photographs taken at Thorpeness camp showing off-duty troopers inside a barrack hut; bedding piled outside a hut during cleaning; officers inspecting saddlery and members of the unit constructing a light wooden bridge. Covering Johnson's time with the MGC are photographs taken onboard the troopship HMT MINNETONKA enroute to Egypt; views of Sidi Bishr Camp in 1916; Sollum Fort, No.2 Post and views of the North African coastline; members of the Royal East Kent Yeomanry concert party in costume for a performance of 'Lance Corporal Aladdin'; men of the MGC training with Vickers machine guns whilst wearing gas masks and a Vickers gun in use at an anti-aircraft post. There are also photographs of British forces in the Palestine Campaign including the MGC during the Second Battle of Gaza (17-19 April 1917). Other photographs of interest show Italian Bersaglieri with motor transport and Italian colonial (Askari) troops in Palestine. Relating to the RFC / RAF are photographs of aircraft crashed by Johnson during training and scenes showing the aftermath of RAF bombing retreating Turkish columns in Palestine during late 1918.
The collection also includes a small number of aerial photographs showing Ismailia, the Sweet Water Canal and barges in Lake Limsah. There are also general 'tourist style' photographs of churches, mosques, local people and archaeological sites in Egypt. Finally, the album includes a few photographs taken in 1913 around Ipswich showing Ipswich Docks; a farm house in Gainsborough Lane; Claydon and Orwell.