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Bob Kerr: 'Hell Here Now': The Gallipoli Diary of Alfred Cameron

Bob Kerr is a Wellington-based painter and author with an interest in New Zealand's history and landscape.

Working from the diaries of Alfred Cameron, Bob Kerr's paintings present a visual diary of Alfred's journey as a young man leaving his uncle's farm in Culverden North Canterbury, travelling to Suez Canal and eventually to Gallipoli.

The exhibition title is partly taken from a despairing diary entry in early June, 1915, 'It's just hell here now, no water or tucker, only seven out of thirty three in number one troop on duty, rest either dead or wounded.

Dam the place, no good writing any more.' (Gallipoli Diary of Alfred Cameron)

The exhibition also looks briefly at the parallel story of Ismail Hakki, a Turkish soldier who was killed in action in 1916.

Bob Kerr's paintings are held in private collections in New Zealand and overseas. Perhaps his best known painting is on the cover of Michael King's Penguin History of New Zealand

Credit: Return to Cricklewood, 2012, oil on board, 680mm x 200mm Private Collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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