I have recently found some photographs and postcards once belonging to my great uncle, Charles Samuel Hunt. He served as a Bombardier (98544) in the 54th Brigade Ammunition Column RFA 10th Division - at least according to addresses on postcards sent to him.

I know that Charles was serving in Ireland around the outbreak of war, but family rumour suggests he was at Salonika and also Gallipoli. There are one or two photos definitely placing him in Salonika. When I was researching my great grandfather's war record I saw that some of this group may have been serving in Egypt and Palestine in the latter half of the war. Is it possible that Charles could also have served in Egypt and Palestine - or would he have been likely to have served in the Balkans for the whole war?

The collection includes a few photos that are in Salonika, like a pose in front of the famous tower. There are also some photos of what looks like a military show and maybe even photos behind the front line, with (amongst other things) a person in local dress on a horse, artillery, what looks like a field hospital and an "ambulance" moving stretchers straddled between horses. There is at least one showing a man in British uniform posing between 2 men whi look like they belong to a foreign army. Are these photos of any interest to anyone?

Richard

The horse stretcher is most likely a travoy, used extensively in Macedonia, and (so I was told at a Salonika talk I gave at a WFA branch) copied from the method used by American Indians.

Here is a link to Stanley Spencer's famous painting Travoys at Smol:

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:w-2Xn...ey-spencer.html

Any chance if I ask nicely of a scan of the show? I may be able to help with identification, though I can't promise.

I will scan them in the next few days - unfortunately they are quite over-exposed, so I will play with them a bit in Photoshop before submitting them.

I have uploaded the photos to Flickr.com if you wish to see the lot - it comes to over 14mb so I didn't want to try and load them here. I have also included 4 photos of soldiers off duty, including my great uncle - presumably all taken in Salonika. 2 of the photos have people with different uniforms to the British men, including a youth in military uniform.

This link should take you to the first of the photos Salonika Photos

If not then this is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39985997@N04/3766248727/

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Richard Lake

That barley-twist minaret was a much-used spot for souvenir photos.

The others appear to be of one of the divisional horse shows which were held from time to time. 22nd Division held one called Col Bogey's Circus, described as a Horse Show and Fair.