Roll of Honour Photographs
14 April 2008 by Joanne Smedley. News Comments (14)
The Australian War Memorial is encouraging Australians to look through their family wartime photographs to find images of the more than 102,000 men and women who died while on active service, and whose names are on bronze panels of the Roll of Honour.
The photographs will allow all Australians to remember these individuals as their families did. An online version of the Roll of Honour is available on the Memorial’s website. Photographs are linked online to the entry on the Roll, which personalises the information.
The ultimate aim is to add a photographic image to every name. Currently there are 6,600 photographs linked to the online Roll of Honour. This project started in the 1920s, when Charles Bean thought of the concept. John Treloar, the first Director of the Memorial, wrote thousands of letters to families seeking portraits. The internet and email, combined with an increasing interest in family and military history, has seen this project acquire a new life.
We need your help
First check if a photograph is linked by searching the Roll of Honour database
If there is no linked photograph, contact a curator about how you can help by providing one:
- Phone (02) 6243 4593 or
- email photographs@awm.gov.au or fill in the form to ask questions or have someone contact you.
More information
April 17th, 2008 at 9:56 am
the only recolection off the war years was through my uncles who served with australian and newzealand troops.was off the great commrade ship he said was very vital and a great friend ships were formed ,and to this day some off his friends are still alive.but sadley not all my uncles are they had a time when the germans train was stolen right from under there noses.that is one off the last stories we shared sadly before he died .thank you sandra
April 21st, 2008 at 11:23 pm
My maternal grandfather, Sydney Keith McKessar, (33rd Bn 1stAIF, regimental no. 2615)was killed in action in France in 1917. An article about him appeared in an issue of a 1994 regional newspaper. This article contains a photo. I have located other memorabilia, which may include more photos, in a regional museum and will be viewing these in July. I intend to photograph some/all of these items. At this stage I could send you a copy of the image in the article; or wait until after viewing the other items. Let me know if I can help.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I am the widow of Arthur James Robertson who died of malaria whilst serving with the Australian Army Training Team on 5th December 1967. A friend told me you were looking for photos of those who died on active service. Just now I looked up the Roll of Honour Photographs and to my delight saw that there was already a photo which included my husband during his service in Malaya. I have ordered a copy online. Would you like a copy of a ‘protrait’ type photo of Arthur for your collection or will the one you already have suffice.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:25 am
This is a good project.
If no suitable photographic portrait can be otherwise found, would you consider using enlistment photographs held on service records in the National Archives of Australia? It will lack the personal dimension of a family held photograph, but perhaps will be better than nothing.
No doubt this question has been revisted many times in the long life of the project!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
If Bill Clarke reads this, I can supply you with a grave photo of your great Uncle Sydney McKessarwhich we took in France.
We are obviously distant relatives and he appears on our family tree.
Sandra McKessar
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 am
hi everyone i’m doing a project on war at my shcool if u have any good sites let me know
May 28th, 2008 at 1:53 am
If Bill Clarke or Sandra McKessar read this, I will be visiting the Strand Military Cemetery in two days time, on Friday 30th May. I live in the UK at the moment, and we’ve been meaning to visit the grave of my Grandfather’s (Alfred George McKessar) older brother (Sydney Keith McKessar) for some time. I’ll take some photo’s and would be happy to email these on to you both.
Malcolm McKessar
May 29th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I supplied a photograph of my Uncle Arthur HP Newson to the Memorial’s project last August and I hope this image will be made available soon for public view. This young man’s World War One Medals (1914/15 Star, British War and Victory Medals) have been missing from my family’s possession for over a generation(most probably sold sometime after the Great War)and it is a deeply personal loss for which subsquent decendants never recover from. If anyone reading this can solve this mystery for us, I would appreciate hearing from you. Thank-you.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I have a photo of my uncle, Wallace Vivian Bridle, a Private in WWII. On the Roll of Honour, Wallace’s second name is spelt incorrectly (Vivien). Wallace was killed in battle in New Guinea in January 1944. My aunty was told he died ‘facing the foe’. Wallace has four surviving siblings, Jack Bridle 95(Tumut), Trixie Clugston 94 (Adaminaby), Rolfe 92 (Tumut), Clyde 84 (Tumut).
June 19th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Hello if the relatives (from his brother Charles) of Arthur Frederic TURNBULL died August 1918, read this, I am going to France to photograph his grave in September and would love to contact them. Arthur and Charles were my grandmother,Edith Selma Kerr’s, cousins.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Whle researching my husbands famity tree, we came across 3 members who died in WW1. Henry Jarman was killed on 16-4-1918 & is buried at the Riebmont Cimmunal Cemetery Extension. His brother Sydney Jarman died on 12.10.1917 at Passchendale & is buried at the Poelcapelle British Cemetery. Wentworth East died 7-6-1917 at Messives Ridge & he is listed on the Menin Gate. All this information came from the the AWM.
My husband & I were lucky enough to visit all 3 resting places of these courageous young men in 2005. At the site of the Jarman brothers were photos placed 1 month before we arrived by ERIC DEW-their Great nephew. It was wonderful to know that after all these years they were not forgotten.
I photographed these photos & will send them on however if ERIC DEW could be contacted he would have better ones.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Hi,
This information is from the “Great War Forum”:
During recent renovations at a shop in Sevenoaks (Kent, UK) close to 500 glass plate negatives were discovered holed up in an old fireplace. The shop was once one of the photographic studios of the Essenhigh-Corke family. The collection has been bought by The Centre for Kentish Studies (Kent archives) and is currently being digitized for an exhibition later this summer.
My name is Jonathan Barker, I work at the Kent archives and I’m the lucky person who’s scanning this collection. As Kent is the county closest to France it hosted many staging camps. We are assuming there was one near Sevenoaks, as so far I’ve identified close to fifty different regiments, including Canadian, New Zealand and Australian troops. Whilst many of the badges were fairly easy to identify, some are a bit vague, so I’m asking for your help.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting lots of the photographs for you to confirm my deductions or ridicule my amateurish assumptions! The names given with each image were written on the glass plate itself, presumably the person in the photograph, but not necessarily.
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101882
I have made a post at the forum suggesting the Kent Archives may want to contact the Curator of Photographs.
cheers,
Chris
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
If D. Feore reads this, I have a large portrait of your relative ‘Charles Leslie Feore’ which you may be interested in. It would go well with the photo you recently donated.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
At the AWM you will find over 2000 photographs of Gallipoli by my great Uncle Phillip Schuler. He was a journalist with The Age newspaper in Melbourne – his father, my great Grandfather, was the editor – but later joined the AIF [ service no 10926, 3rd Div Train] and was killed in France in 1917. His legacy was a book called ‘Australia in Arms’, published in 1916.
We believe that he was engaged to an English widow. We do not know her name, but she had two young boys, and was in Cairo for some time. It is said that she had a memorial placed in a church in Cairo when he died. If there is anyone who has seen this memorial or who might be related to this woman, i would love to hear from you.
Hoping there is someone who can help,
Su