Again just a curiosity but the man standing near the tent in the middle of the picture looks like a clerical man. Was he perhaps the chaplain to the soldiers who went to the Sudan?
Allan Cole says:
As two officers of the New South Wales Infantry 1885 are present then the photograph is presumably after that date but they returned from the Sudan in a Khaki uniform. They had tried to darken their kelmets with tea and tobacco juice.
Allan Cole says:
Not sure about this . Perhaps Rhonda may know. A number of the women appear to be in mourning dress and some of the younger women though dressed in white have the lower part of their dresses in black. Are they perhaps in mourning after the death of General Gordon in Khartoum in the Sudan. I understand that strict mourning rules applied in the Victorian Era.
Allan Cole says:
Something to ponder. The man in uniform standing immediately behind the seated woman in black with an umbrella up in 4481_a026_000703 and the man standing immediately behind him and to his left appear also in 4481_a026_000695. The first man is vey like the fourth man from the right in the backrow behind and to the left of the seated mounted officer second from the right. The rear man in 703 is very like that seated man.
Allan Cole says:
Not sure if chairs mean anything but the type of chairs used in picture ID 703 and 701 are similar particularly the chairs with the arms. The other type of chair I believe was produced in a collapsed form by the thousand. Picture may well be taken late afternoon as a long shadow is cast across the group onto the tent and may be on the other side of the trees in picture ID 695 but I am not sure.
@Allan Cole, I wanted to say thanks for sharing your expertise with us. I hope that someone who shares your passion and interest will find these and respond. Activity on posts like this tend tends to go in fits and starts. Sometimes it can take months or in a couple of instances even years!
Allan Cole says:
Again just a curiosity but the man standing near the tent in the middle of the picture looks like a clerical man. Was he perhaps the chaplain to the soldiers who went to the Sudan?
Allan Cole says:
As two officers of the New South Wales Infantry 1885 are present then the photograph is presumably after that date but they returned from the Sudan in a Khaki uniform. They had tried to darken their kelmets with tea and tobacco juice.
Allan Cole says:
Not sure about this . Perhaps Rhonda may know. A number of the women appear to be in mourning dress and some of the younger women though dressed in white have the lower part of their dresses in black. Are they perhaps in mourning after the death of General Gordon in Khartoum in the Sudan. I understand that strict mourning rules applied in the Victorian Era.
Allan Cole says:
Something to ponder. The man in uniform standing immediately behind the seated woman in black with an umbrella up in 4481_a026_000703 and the man standing immediately behind him and to his left appear also in 4481_a026_000695. The first man is vey like the fourth man from the right in the backrow behind and to the left of the seated mounted officer second from the right. The rear man in 703 is very like that seated man.
Allan Cole says:
Not sure if chairs mean anything but the type of chairs used in picture ID 703 and 701 are similar particularly the chairs with the arms. The other type of chair I believe was produced in a collapsed form by the thousand. Picture may well be taken late afternoon as a long shadow is cast across the group onto the tent and may be on the other side of the trees in picture ID 695 but I am not sure.
Fiona Sullivan says:
@Allan Cole, I wanted to say thanks for sharing your expertise with us. I hope that someone who shares your passion and interest will find these and respond. Activity on posts like this tend tends to go in fits and starts. Sometimes it can take months or in a couple of instances even years!
Jenny says:
Thank you to Alan Cole for pointing State Records in the direction of the NSW Volunteer Infantry encampments. Based on the helmet plates which were introduced in early 1883 the images appear to have been taken at Windsor.
Thanks to the comments of Bob Meade on flickr, an image that is related to these has been identified as Sergeants of the 2nd Regiment of the Voluntary Infantry, Easter Encampment, at Windsor in April 1884. http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/staff-pick-soldiering-in-the-late-19th-century/
The above are some of forty images that State Records have grouped together on our flickr account because we believe they are of the NSW Volunteer Infantry at an Easter Encampment at Windsor, in either March 1883 or April 1884. See our Easter 2014 blog http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/what-are-your-easter-memories-church-show-bags-and-chocolate-eggs-easter-encampments/
You can find a link to all forty of the images throught this article.
Thank you also to Sean Ryan for his detailed comments on the uniforms in the photos
http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/australian-soldiers-in-black-and-white/4481_a026_000699/
http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/australian-soldiers-in-black-and-white/4481_a026_000695/
Jenny