OF THE 1246 men to have represented the Carlton Football club at senior level since the VFL competition’s inception year of 1897, photographs of just 107 remain outstanding.

That number has now been revised to 106, with the discovery in the lead-up to Anzac Day of the first known image of former Carlton footballer Henry Charles (‘Harry’) Powell - appropriately enough in military uniform.

Thought to have been taken in late 1918, the damaged and worn sepia photo depicts Harry (with moustache) and an unknown fellow soldier mounted on camels in the shadows of the Great Sphinx and one of the Pyramids of Giza.

The precious image was supplied by Harry’s great-grandson Ken Brownrigg, who noted that Harry served with the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment from 1917 until his discharge after the war’s end.

Born in Malvern in July 1878, Henry Charles Powell’s first known footballing forays involved the inner-city Amateur club Fitzroy Crescent. Joining nearby Carlton in 1901, the then 22-year-old earned senior selection in Round 6, having been named on a half-back flank alongside the captain Ernie Walton for the match with Melbourne on the MCG.

This was the first of just eight senior appearances for Powell – each one of them losses – with the last of them in Round 2, 1902 against South Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval.

Fifteen years later, Powell, at 39 years two months, volunteered for active service. With The Great War nearing an end, Powell was allocated to a draft of reinforcements for Australia’s iconic Light Horse Brigade – and in early 1918 he bid farewell to his wife Margaret, and boarded a troop ship bound for the Middle East.

However, Pte. Powell saw little active service. Not long after his arrival in Suez aboard the Ormonde, he contracted malaria, and was rushed to hospital with a soaring temperature and a racing heartbeat. He later reported back for duty, but after a few weeks was struck down with pneumonia – and by the time he completed hospital stints in Port Said, Damascus and Cairo the guns had fallen silent.

In June 1919, Pte. Powell was finally discharged. At Kantara he boarded the ship Essex, and by late July completed the short walk down the gangway and back on to Australian soil.

Powell’s great grandson Ken Brownrigg, who graciously availed the photograph to the Carlton Football Club archive, was able to shed some light on the returned soldier’s post-war years.

“Harry was born in Malvern, but lived mainly in Northcote – in Gladstone Avenue, Clarke Street, Charles Street and Mansfield Street,” Brownrigg said.

“He had a number of jobs throughout his life – from bread carter to barman, railway worker and general labourer. He and his wife were parents to eleven children, not all of whom survived.  One son Henry, nicknamed ‘Goog’, later played for Fitzroy, but sadly smashed his knee on debut and never played again.”

Tragically, Powell’s life was brought to premature end in June 1930.

“Harry fell asleep on the last train out of the city,” Brownrigg explained.

“When the train pulled into Croxton Station he awoke and quickly got off the train, but it was one station too early. He tried to get back onto the train, but fell between the train and platform and was crushed . . . and he died of injuries in St Vincent’s Hospital shortly afterwards.”

Almost 100 years after his passing, and through the generosity of his great grandson and the emergence of a treasured sepia photograph, the life and legacy of Carlton footballer and returned serviceman Harry Powell can truly be acknowledged.

“My family is proud of Harry’s AIF service especially given he was nearly 40 when he enlisted. He must have been aware of the horrendous casualties the AIF suffered and therefore the dangers he might face after he volunteered,” Brownrigg said.

“Family folklore holds that he was a courageous bloke on the footy field too. Every time I sit in the stands at the MCG I think of Harry running on with his mates in 1901, and doing his bit for the Blues.”