COUVE BROTHERS KIA GALLIPOLI 8th BN AIF
An outstanding and scarce pair of photo Albums of Lt Alan "father" Crawford Couve and Lt Henry Thomas Ladson Couve both of the 8th battalion AIF. There are 161 photos in total of which were sent home to their sister. All are captioned and record their story fighting the Turks before Gallipoli (this subject is seldom written about) and includes their last photos captioned "En route to Lemnos April 1915" and "Kit parade Lemnos" as Lt Alan Couve was tragically killed on the landing by sniper fire (DOW on the 26th), with his brother being killed only two weeks later.
There are too many 8th battalion names associated with these photos to mention them all, although all would be Gallipoli veterans, possibly decorated and KIA's. This collection really demands a lot of time and research but would no doubt be a "jewel in the crown" to an 8 Bn, Gallipoli or Victorian collector.
The regimental unit history "Cobbers in Khaki" states Lt. Alan Couve was reported to have encouraged his men during the initial fighting by shouting. "Don't worry about the shells, boys; while you can hear them they won't do you any harm; it's the shells you don't hear that will do the damage".
Included with the photos are as follows;
1. 1913 dated 3 MD military map by the then Lt. Col. Monash of the Lilydale & Yarraglen districts. The map is named to Lieut A. Couve F. Company Dandenong in pencil. There are a few locations marked "HQ, 10.2.14" and similar.
2. A beautiful poem about the very first troop departure out of Albany titled "The troopships of A.N.Z.A.C. (Oct.. - Dec. 1914.). The poem mentions the Emden action and is very well written by Eileen Ramsay nee Couve.
3. An official letter mentioning the above poem, Mr Couve Snr's soldier settlement property and goes on to mention that the Couve brothers were prominant footballers. Written by the Hon. Ken. Mackenzie Wright.
This is a very important and emotional collection
SOLD
