P03236.175 Accession Number: P03236.175

Description

Studio portrait of Australian Prisoner of War (POW) Alan Victor Underwood who served under the alias 2723 Corporal (Cpl) Reginald Allan Smart, 59th Battalion, from Maribyrnong, Victoria. He is wearing a collar badge with the letters NZ surrounded by a wreath. Underwood enlisted four times between July 1915 and April 1916 under this name, giving his age as 18 and was discharged medically unfit (flat feet) each time. He then enlisted as Reginald Allan Smart, aged 18 on 30 May 1916 and embarked for overseas on 2 October 1916 aboard HMAT Nestor. He was wounded and captured at Bapaume, France on 5 February 1917. He wrote from the military hospital at Julich, Germany on 16 February 1917 "Just a line to inform you that I am a prisoner of war in Germany and I am being treated real well. I was wounded in the upper legs in three places by a hand grenade, but I am progressing as well as could be expected. Will you please forward on all parcels and letters, if allowed. I also hope that you will inform my parents that I am being well cared for and that I am progressing as well as could be expected." He again wrote from the POW camp at Limburg, Germany on 15 October 1917 "I am in the best of health - Am receiving my food parcels regularly. It is a credit to the Australian Red Cross for the way it looks after us." Cpl Smart was repatriated to England on 5 December 1918 and arrived back in Australia on 20 August 1919. One of a series of over 400 photographs sent by Australian POWs in German camps to Miss M. E. Chomley, Secretary, Prisoners Department, Australian-British Red Cross Society, London. Original album housed in AWM Research Centre at RC00864, Album image number 207.