Victor Rupert Laidlaw, Australians bathing at Cape Helles, c1915, State Library Victoria. Gift from Mrs E Barker, 1984.

Private Victor Laidlaw’s photograph shows a large group of Australian soldiers swimming at Cape Helles, off the Gallipoli peninsula’s southern tip. Their tents can be seen crowning the steep cliff top in the background. Private Laidlaw enlisted in the services on 18 August 1914. His diaries and photographs recall his time en route to Alexandria, at the Mena Camp at Cairo, on Lemnos Island, in the Dardanelles at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, and in France.