Identities given back to first Anzacs in Cheops pyramid photo

A BRISBANE man manages to identify his late grandfather in one of World War 1’s most iconic photos.

CHEOPS PYRAMID .. Remembrance Day (11/11). Updated colourised image of Australia's 11th Battalion at the Cheops Pyramid in Jan, 1915. This version done Nov 2014 by Andrew Belousoff as part of Anzac to Afghanistan project helping to identify the men, many of whom died at Gallipoli. Coloured ones are identified.

CHARLES John Steadman would often search for his grandfather, Private Charles Ernest Steadman, in his copy of the celebrated Old Cheops pyramid photo of World War I.

But picking him out from the 703 faces of the men of the 11th battalion was virtually impossible.

But thanks to the painstaking work of the West Australian Genealogical Society, Dr Steadman has finally located his grandfather in the historic photo taken in Egypt on January 10, 1915, only three months before the men hit the beaches of Gallipoli.

When The Sunday Mail republished the picture in August, calling for people to come forward to help identify more of the soldiers, Brisbane’s Dr Steadman emailed WAGS high-quality images of his grandfather.

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WAGS webmaster Chris Loudon compared those photos with a digital copy of the Cheops photograph which he had divided into grids, finally finding Pte Steadman in the very middle of the shot.

Charles Steadman in the Cheops photo.

“It’s meant a great deal to me,” Dr Steadman said. “Just the fact alone that this photo is coming back to life with this commemoration is something that has quite touched me.”

So far 101 of the men have been identified.

Dr Steadman, 57, said when growing up in Townsville he was very close to his grandfather who recounted his war exploits, taught his grandson war songs and left him treasured WW1 memorabilia such as medals, photos and postcards from the front.

The photograph of the 11th Battalion at Cheops in 1915 with the identified men in colour.

“I can also remember marching with my grandfather on Anzac Day. My school teachers were always amazed that I knew the words to It’s A Long Way To Tipperary or Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag.”

As a member of 11th battalion, Private Steadman was among the first men to land at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, a day on which the battalion lost 57 men. Private Steadman survived the campaign before being posted to France’s Western Front in 1916 and finally being commissioned as a lieutenant after war’s end in 1919.

Dr Steadman, of Kenmore, said he was especially proud of his grandfather’s war record, particularly as he also served as a regimental medical officer in Afghanistan in 2008-2009.

Mr Loudon said News Corporation’s publishing of the picture had flushed several more families seeking to identify more of the 703 men, of whom 101 had been verified so far.

A further 107 were in the process of being checked. Mr Loudon said WAGS hoped to identify as many of the men in the photo as possible by the centenary of the picture on January 10, 2015.

Originally published as Identities given back to first Anzacs in Cheops pyramid photo