P03236.262 Accession Number: P03236.262

Description

Studio portrait of Australian ex-Prisoner of War (POW) 3489 Private (Pte) Horace Dudley Bolder, 55th Battalion from Gilgandra, NSW, without his hat. Pte Bolder enlisted on 29 July 1915 at the age of 26 with his 28 year old brother, 3490 Pte Alfred Vincent Bolder, and they embarked for overseas with the 3rd Battalion on 2 November 1915 aboard HMAT Euripides. Both brothers were captured at Fleurbaix, France on 20 July 1916 after all their ammunition and bombs were expended and the trench they were helping to defend was surrounded by Germans. In a report on their capture, the brothers stated "We were taken to Lille citadel where we spent four days. Here we were robbed of anything of value we possessed. On July 24, 1916 we were packed into horse trucks at the railway station and taken to Dulmen in Germany." In September 1916, they were transferred to Schneidemuhl where they remained until the Armistice was signed. The brothers further reported "The day after the Armistice was signed we escaped from our Commando and crossed the German Poland frontier into Russian Poland on November 14, 1918. We arrived in Warsaw 24 hours after the Germans evacuated it. We travelled by train from Warsaw through Galitia and Austria to Buda Pesth [Budapest] where we remained for a fortnight. Then we went to Vienna where we boarded a special train for English people and came through Switzerland to Lyons (St. Germain). We arrived in Calais on December 17, and sailed for Dover on December 19, 1918." Pte Horace Bolder arrived back in Australia on 16 May 1919, one month after his brother. See also P03236.261. 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 314.