A red cloth covered album containing 211 photographs which are glued in. This album relates to Captain Halsted’s career in the Royal Navy, July 1915, in the Royal Naval Air Service, July 1915 – October 1918 and in the Royal Air Force, October 1918 – 1920. Ships include: HMS Amphitrite (1898), HMS Ebro (1915), HMS Nairana (1917), HMS Pegasus (1917), HMS Vindex (1905), HM E50 (1916), HMS Murray (1914), HM E26 (1915), HM K12 (1917), HMS Furious (1916), HMS Umpire (1917). There are also photographs of seaplanes, aeroplanes, airships and naval personnel, Harwich/Shotley, the German High Seas Fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow. There are views of North Russia including the Solovetski Monastery and groups of Russian refugees possibly in Odessa.

Francis Neville Halsted/Halstead was born in Sydenham, Kent 23rd January 1896. He was a cadet on HMS Worcester 1910-1913 and then served in SS Golconda (1888), 1912-1914. He entered the Royal Naval Reserve as a Probationary Midshipman in August 1914 serving in HMS Victorian (1904) and HMS Ebro (1914). By July 1915 he was a Probationary Flight Sub Lieutenant, Royal Naval Air Service and was posted to Eastchurch, Upavon and Yarmouth. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant, 1 October 1916 and served in HMS Vindex (1905), 1917 and HMS Nairana, 1918 when he was promoted to Flight Commander. He was promoted to Major (RAF) in October 1918 and served in HMS King George V. Captain Halstead/Halsted was drowned when the steam launch Emniet collided with the steamboat Cassim Pasha, 3rd October 1920 while serving as Flight Commander at the Seaplane Repair Base, Feneraki in the Black Sea. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton. He was awarded the DSC and DFC.

Bibliography: Royal Navy Aircraft 1911-1919 by Sturtivant and Page.