Alcon Benjamin Webb Pacific Photographs

This collection of 349 photographs was taken from around 1914 to 1918 while Webb was on a Pacific tour and later a prisoner of war of the Germans in Rabaul.

 

The images depict a variety of places and subjects. Those from Rabaul, New Britain Province, PNG, show scenes of the prison hospital and patients, as well as the harbour, shipping, native police, village life, social customs, traditional ceremonies churches and missions, a German school and plantation life. Images from Vanuatu (which include the islands of Efate, Tanna, Ambrym and Malakula) show village scenes, local people, dress, portraits, social customs and coffee and copra production. There are also some from North Solomons Province and Manus Province, PNG.

Alcon Benjamin Webb

Webb was born at Palmers Island, northern New South Wales and never married. He was a chemist consultant on holidays on the ship 'Metunga' when it was sunk by the German ship 'Raider Wolf'. He was taken prisoner by the Germans and held as a Prisoner Of War in Rabaul (then a German Territory) during World War I. He acted as a medical assistant in Rabaul hospital. The photographs date from this time. Webb developed his own prints. He died in Randwick Hospital of tuberculosis and 'war wounds'. Webb’s great-nephew had no knowledge of Web’s movements beyond his time in Rabaul.

 


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3 comments

ianaff - 4.04 PM, 13 April 2012
Webb was a soldier in the Australian Naval and Expeditionary Force (AN&EF)and stationed in Rabaul. His service details are as follows: 1012 Staff Sergeant Alcon Benjamin Webb. He was a passenger on the SS Matunga, the Burns Philp ship that serviced the Australian garrison at Rabaul when it was captured by the German raider Wolf. The Wolf put a prize crew on the Matunga and the ships sailed together to a remote location on the nothern coast of New Guinea where the cargo was taken on board the Wolf and the crew and passengers were taken as prisoners. The Wolf eventually made her way back to Germany in an outstanding feat of seamshoip by the Wolf's captain and the prisoners were transfered to POW camps in Germany where they remained until the end of the war. There is some good detail about his time as a POW on the AWM web sit, look under People, then under WW1 red Cross wounded and missing.
Vanessa Finney - 1.03 PM, 28 March 2012

Hi Pete,

The Alcon Webb photographs we have were taken in New Britain from 1914 to 1918. It looks like we are talking about the same person. Here is the full description from our catalogue entry:

Webb was born at Palmers Island, northern New South Wales and never married.  He was a chemist consultant on holidays on the ship 'Metunga' when it was sunk by the German ship “Raider Wolf”.  He was taken prisoner by the Germans and held as a Prisoner Of War in Rabaul (then a German Territory) during World War I.  He acted as a medical assistant in Rabaul hospital.  The photographs date from this time and Webb developed his own prints.  He died in Randwick Hospital of tuberculosis and 'war wounds'. 

The photographs are from East New Britain, Vanuatu, North Solomons Province and Manus Province, PNG.  

ferro - 10.03 AM, 02 March 2012
Hi I am reseaching all the WW1 volunteers from Palmers Island and Yamba district for an exhibition the Yamba Museum will be showing in April. My information about Alcon Webb is that he was kept on the Wolf until it returned to Germany where he became a POW at Gustrow. Also in his service records at the NA, it states that his profession was a Male Nurse. Are we talking about the same person? And is there any way to view some of the images? There is also a picture of Alcon Webb in a POW camp on the AWM web site - picture number P01981.017. Thanks Pete Edmunds

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