File:Maurice George DelPratt correspondence - 20 May 1915 - 28115-1v001r000.jpg

DescriptionMaurice George DelPratt correspondence - 20 May 1915 - 28115-1v001r000.jpg	English: Postcard from Maurice George Delpratt to his sister, Mrs F.L. White (Elinor) written from Alexandria, Egypt before his capture. The postcard features a photograph of a street scene. Letters and postcards written by Maurice George Delpratt while held as a prisoner of war in Turkey during World War One.Scope and Content: Letters and postcards written by Maurice George Delpratt while held as a prisoner of war in Turkey during World War One. Most of the letters were written to Maurice George Delpratt's eldest sister Elinor (Nell), Mrs F.L. White of "Brooklands", Woodhill, Queensland. The collection also contains other letters written by his family and friends and some items of ephemera.
Date	20 May 1915
Source	State Library of Queensland (http://hdl.handle.net/10462/eadarc/8217)
Author	Maurice George DelPratt
Permission (Reusing this file)	This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/deed.enCC BY 2.5 auCreative Commons Attribution 2.5 autruetrue

Maurice George Delpratt was born at Tambourine, Queensland, on 23 December 1886. He was one of the first pupils to attend The Southport School and was later employed as a housemaster there. He resigned from the school in 1910 and took up pastoral interests in western Queensland. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he volunteered for the 5th Light Horse Regiment. His unit embarked from Sydney on board the Transport A34 Persic on 21 December 1914, and was sent to Egypt for training. His mother, Ada, died while he was on his way to Egypt. Delpratt fought at Gallipoli and was taken prisoner by the Turks on 28 June 1915. He was officially listed as missing in action and his family was informed of this status in July that year. He remained a prisoner of war for the duration of hostilities, being imprisoned mainly at Hadji-Kiri, near Belemedik, in the Taurus Mountains where he worked on the Baghdad railway construction. He was released after the armistice of November 1918 and after a brief stay in England was repatriated to Australia on the 3rd July 1919. Delpratt spent six years at Tambourine and later became involved in fruit growing in Palmwoods. In 1928 he married Mary Esther Davies of Toowoomba. They had three daughters. He later worked at the Warwick Post Office and died in Warwick on the 8th March 1957.