16 DLI Mortar Platoon Photograph, 1942

A 1942 group photograph of the Mortar Platoon, HQ Company, 16 DLI is now posted on this page of the web site:

http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page3.html

Thanks to Steven Henderson, the son of of ex-Mortar Platoon Sergeant J C Henderson, for passing on a copy of this extremely rare picture. More photographs and information on Sgt Henderson's wartime career with 16 DLI, all courtesy of Steve, can be read from this page:

http://16dli.atspace.co.uk/page2.html

The importance of this long-lost photograph is that it finally proves to me that there are other official group company and platoon photographs out there to discover of the 16th DLI taken in 1942 before the Battalion went abroad.

1942 official (that is sanctioned, organised and paid for by the battalion for distribution to Officers and Other Ranks) group photographs of

B Company,

D Company,

the Battalion Sergeants

and the Battalion Officers

have surfaced and are already on the site and can accessed from the 16 DLI Photographs Index page, here:

http://16dli.awardspace.co.uk/page51.html

Captioning these photographs is still an on-going process! All were taken by the Folkstone firm of Lambert and Weston in either Rye or Winchelsea. The photographs that are still missing and lost to 16 DLI history are:

the 1942 group photograph of:

'A' Company,

the 1942 group photo of

C Company

and the 1942 photographs of the other various HQ Company specialist platoons.

It's interesting that the Mortar Platoon photograph is taken at exactly the same location as the

1942 Sergeants' photograph,

with very distinctive bay windows as a backdrop.

16 DLI HQ Company numbered around 250, which was very large for a single group photo, so it's likely that photographs of the specific specialist platoons were taken at this same location and in the same manner as the Mortar Platoon, namely:

the 1942 16 DLI

Signal Platoon

Anti-Aircraft Platoon

Carrier Platoon

Pioneer Platoon

Administration Platoon

Anti-Tank Platoon

Again I appeal to anyone who may have any of these pictures, or who can place further faces on those already published on the site, to get in touch.

The history of the 16th DLI will be so much the richer if these long lost photographs can be shared, captioned and allowed to tell their otherwise long-lost stories.