Over the past few months the Memorial has been increasing its efforts to acquire photographs of men and women who died on active service whilst serving in the Australian military forces. 102,000 names appear on the Roll of Honour, and where possible, the Memorial has been trying to put faces to names by acquiring photographs of these men and women to link to their online Roll of Honour records. Over the past three months, the Memorial’s Photographs section has received over 2,000 public inquiries regarding the Roll of Honour project, resulting in the offer of 1,800 photographs.

Recent acquisitions over the past few months have uncovered some incredible stories of Australians during wartime, and tell the true nature of loss and sacrifice througout Australia’s military history. Many recent donations have been photographs of those who died on active service during the First World War. Either forgotten over the years, not known at the time, or far too distressing to inform bereaving loved ones, revealing these personal stories involves a thorough examination of the historical record, and goes far to extend the commemoration of the fallen to beyond the bare minimum record of a rank, name, unit and date of death. read on