Immortalised In Oil

in the years following the Great War, the 1st Battalion's gallant advance on 3/4th October 1916 in the Struma Valley was immortalised in oil by the renowned Australian artist, Will Longstaff.
Longstaff's painting, commissioned around 1923-24, depicted men of the Battalion advancing that day with the assistance of armoured cars. As the forward Company's can be seen advancing, men in the rear bring up additional ammunition and supplies. The allied artillery can be seen pounding the village of Mazirko in the foothills of the mountains in the centre, which was to be occupied later by the 1st Battalion. It showed too, the baron, featureless terrain that the men of 1st Suffolk crossed that day.
Longstaff's painting was a prize piece of regimental property. It was carried by the 1st Battalion on campaign abroad from the 1930s, until the final days of the Regiment in Cyprus. It was always hung in a prominent position in whichever Mess the Battalion took over when on Foreign Service, as seen above at Xeros Camp, Cyprus, in 1957. Here it hung on the wall of the Officers Mess, behind the Colours of the Battalion which had been specially uncased to celebrate the marriage of a young subaltern.  
Today, its whereabouts are unknown, but it is believed to still be in the possession of our successors, the Royal Anglian Regiment.

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