State Library of South Australia

Chaplain Donald McNicol [B 74937] • Photograph

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Summary

Half-plate glass negative portrait of Chaplain Captain Donald McNicol, wearing a cap with a cross badge and a great coat. Written on the original paper envelope: 'Donald McNickel, 25-05'.

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Physical description

1 photograph : glass, negative, black and white ; 16.5 x 12 cm

Dates / Publication details

Approximately 1915

Collection

Part of Portrait Collection

Subject

McNicol, Donald, 1876-1942
Australia. Army. Australian Imperial Force (1914-1921) -- Chaplains.
Chaplains, Military -- South Australia.
Military uniforms.
Soldiers -- South Australia.
World War, 1914-1918 -- South Australia.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Australian.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Chaplains -- Australia.

Catalogue record

Return to catalogue

General notes

One of a collection of glass plate negatives of South Australian soldiers, likely produced in metropolitan Adelaide from late 1914 to 1916. The majority of the images are single portraits and demonstrate a wide variety of uniforms, accoutrements and weapons, including swords and rifles with and without fixed bayonets, and various backdrops including outdoors, against buildings, and studio shots with a rural idyll woodland background. Included are portraits of men in twos or groups of three or more, some with wives and sometimes children and parents. Some portraits feature warhorses, senior offices, a quartermaster, and the crew of a West Spring Gun. The original paper envelopes of a number of the glass plates have survived, providing the name of the soldier along with details of the types and quantities of prints ordered. One of the envelopes gives details of the maker, Edwards and Errington of 52 Flinders Street, Adelaide. See B 74889-B 75011, B 75104.

Historical information

Captain Chaplain Donald McNicol, Chaplains Department, 4th Class, Baptist, enlisted in September 1915, aged 38 years,and embarked from Adelaide on board the A2 'Geelong' on 12 November 1915. He served on the front line in France with the 32nd Battalion and 5th Infantry Brigade, visiting the men in the trenches on the front line, operating a brigade canteen, grocery shop, and a reading and writing room, and conducting services within range of German guns. He had previously served as a Chaplain Captain to the Cameron Highlanders A.M.F. for 12 months during the South African Boer War. He returned to Australia on board the 'Karoola', arriving in Melbourne in December 1916. During the Second World War, the Evangelisation Society of South Australia appointed him its full-time military camp padre. Donald McNicol was born on 13 September 1876 in Strachlir, Scotland and married to Elizabeth Campbell McNicol (nee Robertson). He studied for the ministry in Glasgow and Edinburgh and for 18 months he was a missionary to soldiers and sailors in Gibraltar. He arrived in Adelaide in 1910 to work as organiser and missionary of the Sunday-schools department of the Baptist Union of South Australia, and was also minister of the Unley Park Chuch until 1921, when he moved to Launceston, and later served at the Northcote Church in Victoria, returned to Unley Park, and the Semaphore Baptist Church. He died suddenly on 12 April 1942, aged 65, leaving his widow, daughter Elizabeth Campbell Duguid (nee McNicol), and three sons Ian, Donald and David.

Digitisation information

Date

26/07/2016

Format

image/tiff

Resolution

9,762 x 13,259 pixels (129.4 MP)

Size

129.46 MB

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