Description
Object description
Two photographic albums (and two sets of loose prints - 374 images altogether) depicting service of Captain George Milford-Cottam of the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), 7th Armoured Division in Abyssinia, Italy and France during the Second World War.
ALBUM I
Photographs of Abyssinia/Eritrea after its capture by the British Army during the East African Campaign, 1941.
1. Series of images of Massawa - seaport, Italian colonists' settlements.
2. Mountain trail east of Gondar.
3. Italian defenders of Wolchefit Pass being brought to Asmara and put into a POW camp.
4. Deportation of Italian colonists/fascists from Asmara to India.
5. Images of Abyssinian colonial troops (called patriots by Captain Milford-Cottam) from Lieutenant Colonel Basil Ringrose Force.
6. Camp of 4th County of London Yeomanry at Burg el Arab.
7. Jarabub and Siwa Oases.
8. British Army column (called the Bodyguard) on the way to the Ringrose Force.
9. Four images of Long Range Desert Group trucks in the desert.
10. Italian prisoners captured in a raid in Wolchefit outpost including personal images of Italian defenders, captured from them by the British.
11. Troops of 4th County of London Yeomanry on road watching duty behind the enemy lines at Jebel Akhdar.
12. Sites at the city of Axum.
13. German transport moving through plains near Jebel Akhdar.
14. A captured Italian show jumping horse at Asmara; photographs of Lieutenant James from Yorkshire Hussars, Lt. Col. Graham, John Pearson, Ian Glennie, Lt. Richard Archer-Shee.
15. Officers of 4th County of London Yeomanry at Adwa; named individuals - Lt. Richard Archer-Shee, MacCleur, Allan Bromley.
16. Officers of 4th County of London Yeomanry at Adi Ugri (Mendefera) and El-Geneifa, Egypt; named individuals - Capt. Milford-Cottam, Richard Randell, Bernard Shott.
17. Officers of the regiment near the Nile Delta; named individuals - John Graham, Gertie Miller.
18. Officers of the regiment lunching at Alexandria, named individuals - Andrew Alexander, Michael Duffy, Graham Taylor, Jack Owen.
19. Cavalry barracks and shooting party in Adi Ugri.
ALBUM II
Photographs taken at the end of the Tunisia Campaign, May 1943; invasion of Italy (Salerno landings), September 1943; and D-Day landings, June 1944.
1. Short sequence of images from Beirut (Lebanon), Damascus (Syria) and Palestine; individuals named - Charles Marriott, Denis Fairhurst.
2. Short sequence of images taken in Tunisia - a RAF Hurricane Mark IID shooting at German Panzerjager I tank destroyers; Sherman tanks being transported back after the fall of Tunis.
3. Officers of 4th County of London Yeomanry in Khoms, Libya; individuals named - Richard Sutton, Captain Milford-Cottam, Richard Underhill, Peter Trees, John Phillip Smith, Jack Millard.
4. Embarkation of the invasion force from Khoms and Tripoli for Salerno, September 1943 - escort ships laying smoke, hospital ships and LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank), first bivouac of 4th County of London Yeomanry on the Italian soil.
5. Tanks of 4th County of London Yeomanry advancing through streets of Salerno and on the highway to Naples; Italian population greeting British troops, probably in Naples.
6. General views of liberated Naples.
7. Tanks of 4th County of London Yeomanry crossing the Volturno River; series of images called "Alec and Stacey drown the Squadron Leader's tank".
8. Sites at Caserta; tanks of 4th County of London Yeomanry at Aversa; individual named - Arthur Carr.
9. The Normandy invasion - 4th County of London Yeomanry embarking and waiting to move off in Felixstowe on 7 June 1944; Invasion force crossing the Channel on 6 June; landing and disembarking at Arromanches on 7 Arromanches; single image of troops marshalling the area in France on 8 June; named individuals - Sergeant Oliver, Captain Robert Brown, Len Hurley.
LOOSE PRINTS
Series of duplicates from both albums; private photographs of holiday in Egypt; sequence of the Victory Parade in London on 8 June 1946.
Also menu from the party held on board HMT P12 (from the Canadian Pacific) on 11 September 1940 (Wednesday) signed by a few participants, including Captain Milford-Cottam.