Nunan, Stanislaus Acton (Lieutenant, b.1891 - d.1921) Accession Number: 3DRL/6511

Description

Collection relating to the First World War service of 7239 Lieutenant Stanislaus Acton Nunan, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (AFC), Australia, Egypt, England, France, Ottoman Empire, Syria, Transjordan, c.1900-1919.

Wallet 1 of 2 - consists of two folders of correspondence. Folder 1 of 2 contains 40 letters and one telegram dated 15 February 1916 to 19 December 1917. Nunan's early letters to his family describe training and embarkation, rescuing a crew from a torpedoed merchant vessel, and encampment in Egypt. Subsequent letters explore conditions on the Western Front, engineering duties with 5 Field Company, updates on his brother, 4194 Warrant Officer Class I Paul Nunan, and transferring to the Australian Flying Corps as a pilot. Folder 2 of 2 contains 23 letters dated 25 January 1918 to 17 February 1919 during Nunan's service in the Palestine campaign. In a letter dated 6 January 1918, Nunan recounts his forced landing in the desert and repairing his aircraft with the aid of the local Bedouin people. Other letters reference operations with No.1 Squadron, designing a new aerodrome, the Battle of Megiddo, as well as recreation such as sightseeing and photography. The folder also includes typed copies for several original letters.

Wallet 2 of 2 - contains two folders of documents, ephemera and official correspondence. Folder 1 contains 30 documents and souvenirs across the Western Front and Palestine theatres, including souvenir postcards, four military permits, including a vermin declaration and Aboukir zone pass, and a Bedouin dialect phrasebook. Folder 2 contains 56 official documents and correspondence, including operational briefs and reports from 1918-1919, instructions concerning the Damascus aerodrome, and lists of officers and pilots.

Album 1 of 2 - contains 20 aerial photographs, captured by Lieutenant Nunan during aerial operations over Palestine and Syria in 1918. Several images are captioned, and relate to Jaffa, the Jordan River, Damascus, and El-Afule.

Album 2 of 2 - consists of 110 photographs and photographic postcards relating to Lieutenant Nunan's service and family. Images depict recreation and sightseeing in Egypt and Palestine, No. 1 Squadron and its aerodrome, a captured German aircraft and its aircrew, local peoples, as well as portraits of Nunan in uniform, with his observer, Lieutenant Francis Clive Conrick, their Bristol fighter, and Nunan's motorbike. The album also contains six prints of Stanislaus Nunan and the Nunan family, including a studio portrait of Stanislaus and Paul Nunan in uniform, dated 1916.

Custom folio 1 of 2 - contains six albumen prints relating to Nunan's time in the Middle East, depicting scenes from Egypt and Jerusalem.

Custom folio 2 of 2 - contains three certificates and one document, 1914-1919. Items include Nunan's certificate of commission, Mention in Despatches certificate, and certificate of appointment to the Order of the Nahda for Nunan's support in the Arab Revolt.