Cricket on Lemnos ... The 3rd Australian General Hospital v 2nd Brigade

The Anzacs time on Lemnos was not easy.
For the most part they had to suffer the vagaries of the weather - summer heat and dust, followed by winter cold and rains. Insects be-deviled them. Encampments were often ill-prepared, tents limited in number and often soldiers lay exposed to the elements.This affected the soldiers in the rest camps as well as the nurses and medical staff in the hospitals. And all this while seeking to cope with the ever present influx of patients from the peninsula - wounded and sick. And overcoming the initial lack of medical equipment. Coping with these pressures is reflected in the photographs they took and the written records they left behind.
Yet despite all this, the Anzacs were able to enjoy moments of relaxation.
We know they traveled the Island during periods of leave, they visited the churches and shops, vbaths of Therma and talked to the locals. and they palyed soccer.
But now we know that they also played Cricket.

In a folder of photographs, postcards and ephemera held at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, are a unique collection of one of these games. Taken or collected and preserved by Captain Anderson of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, these images record this game in action, as the soldiers played and the soldiers and nurses of the 3rd Australian General Hospital watched and cheered on their players.
Reproduced are just some of these great images.

 

Just some of the amazing stories from Lemnos in 1915 waiting to be discovered and remembered in this the year of the Centenary of Anzac. Wouldn't it be good to recreated this - and the game of soccer - played by the Anzacs on Lemnos 100 years ago this year?
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee