Blog
Stinking Farm Trench Sign
06 December 2011 by Dianne Rutherford.
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Collection,From the collection, Battles, First World War, Heraldry, Western Front
My name is Romy Turner. I am a work experience student from Canberra Girls Grammar School at the Memorial for this week. As part of my work experience I had to research an item, a trench sign, from the Memorial’s collection.
RELAWM06263 Trench sign to Stinking FarmThe trench sign ‘To Stinking Farm & Currie Ave’ was collected during the First World War by Lieutenant Colonel John Basil St. Vincent Welch, whilst he was serving as part of the 13thField Ambulance in Belgium. Welch arrived in Marseilles on 13 July 1916 as a member of the Australian Field Ambulance. He was appointed the commanding officer of the 13thField Ambulance and was stationed around the village of Messines, which would be the site of the Battle of Messines 11 months later. Stationed at Kandahar Farm, Welch assisted in this battle, tending to the wounded as they came back from the front and organising the transportation of the men further back the line to the field hospitals. read on
The Bicycle in Warfare
23 March 2011 by Ally Roche.
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Collection,From the collection,News, First World War, Frontline troops, Technology, Western Front
The bicycle is a machine that we can all relate to, it’s a common denominator. Be that early childhood memories of the first ride down that steep hill, the freedom to go distances that would be problematic on foot or that flat tyre at the most inconvenient time.
Today, bike technology has changed dramatically from the bikes that were being used in the First World War. No carbon fibre frames or dual suspension shock absorbers, gears – what were they? And the AIF Uniform was the standard Cycling Corps apparel, no Italian lycra for our boys as the photograph below demonstrates. This photograph was taken in c1915 at Broadmeadows, Victoria of six members of the Australian Cycling Corps with their bicycles prior to deployment overseas.
Sir John Monash’s German Shoulder Strap Collection
04 January 2011 by Dianne Rutherford.
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Collection,From the collection, Battles, First World War, Heraldry, Western Front
RELAWM15049.004 : Shoulder straps for 233rd Field Artillery Regiment, 37, 24 and 151 Fussartillerie (Foot Artillery) Battalions and 69th Field Artillery Regiment Among the items collected by Sir John Monash during the First World War are over 200 German shoulder straps worn by men who fought against the AIF in 1918. Single shoulder straps were routinely removed from dead or captured Germans for intelligence purposes so the identity of German units opposing the Allied forces could be established.
The butcher and the grocer: A Western Front story.
28 August 2009 by Craig Blanch.
8 Comments
Collection,From the collection,Personal Stories, Australian Field Butchery, First World War, Passchendaele (Ypres), The Light Horse, Western Front
The Western Front was epitomised by the brute force of men against machine and each other. Tens of thousands were lost in the maelstrom of war. In the horror, friendships were forged that endured even through death. This is the story of one such friendship…
Wally Brown was a grocer. He did not necessarily want to be a grocer but neither did he want to follow in the footsteps of his father as a miller. The small Tasmanian community of New Norfolk, into which he was born in 1885, was a progressive ‘postal, telegraphic and money order township’. The town boasted the New Norfolk Literary Institution complete with a library of some 1200 volumes and a ‘very fine and well built lunatic asylum’. Progressive it might have been, but at 26 years of age Brown had itchy feet. In 1911 he left New Norfolk for the bustling lifestyle of Petersham in Sydney.
Dr Phoebe Chapple: The first woman doctor to win the Military Medal
30 June 2009 by Craig Blanch.
15 Comments
Collection,Collection Highlights,From the collection,News,Personal Stories, First World War, Heraldry, military medal, People, Western Front, women in war
Phoebe Chapple was always going to be someone special. She grew up in a family of high achievers. Apart from her father, Frederic Chapple, who was headmaster at Prince Alfred College Adelaide, five of her seven siblings held university degrees: Alfred a lecturer in engineering at St John’s University Cambridge; Ernest, another Cambridge graduate at Jesus University and president of the Fresher Debating Society before taking up a position in Rangoon, Burma; Harold a surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London; Marian an arts graduate from the University of Adelaide; and Fred, another doctor. However, Phoebe stood apart even in such accomplished company.
Ypres, the Menin Gate and the Last Post
19 May 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk.
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Battlefield Tours, Western Front
And the last post for the Battlefield Tour Blog 2008!
Ypres & Passchendaele
Three major battles of the First World War were fought around the medieval town of Ypres. The first battle was a three week attack on British positions on the 18 October 1914. Here the British and French forces halted the German advance a few kilometres before the town. The town became a salient and the Germans continued to shell the town. The cloth hall at Ypres, one of the largest civil buildings in the Gothic style in Europe went up in flames on the 22 November 1914. The 22 April 1915 marks the second battle of Ypres. This date is infamous for the German use of gas as a weapon for the first time. All civilians were evacuated from the town by May 1915 and the town was reduced to rubble from shelling. read on
N’oublions jamais l’Australie – Never Forget Australia
16 May 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk.
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Battlefield Tours,News, Western Front
Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt are two towns on the Western Front that continue to have an ongoing connection with Australia. Due to the warmth and hospitality of the locals in receiving us, the battlefield tour will also not easily forget these towns.
The tiny town of Bullecourt includes a pub called Le Canberra and one of the finest private museums in Northern France. The Bullecourt Musée contains a jumble of rare and interesting collection items found in the local fields. It was started by the Mayor of Bullecourt, Jean Letaille in the 1980′s and was greatly expanded following his retirement. The tour joined Jean and some of the locals of Bullecourt for a lunch at the town hall. read on
Finding a relative on the Western Front
11 May 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk.
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Battlefield Tours,News, Western Front
Dawn and Geoff Harwood were surprised to find that they had a relative buried at Vignacourt British Cemetery. They recognised him as family by his home town and his unusual surname. Geoff and I sat together after dinner last night and using the memorial’s website and databases we were able to uncover a little bit more about George Radnell.
Lochnagar Crater
10 May 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk.
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Battlefield Tours,News, Western Front
When walking the battlefields of the Somme it is evident that most of the visible signs of destruction caused by the First World War have disappeared. The enormous Lochnagar Crater is one of the few surviving scars left on the terrain in this region. A monument to the devastation of war, this crater was caused by a 60,000 lbs mine and is 100 metres in diameter and 30 metres deep. It is hard to capture its sheer size in a photograph.
The land containing the crater was purchased privately in 1978 for preservation as a Memorial to those whose lives that were lost in the crater as well as on the Somme.
Touring the Somme 1916
08 May 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk.
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Battlefield Tours,News, Western Front
The major battles of 1916 took place on the Somme. The offensive began on the 1st July 1916 and would become one of the most costly episodes of the war. Between July and mid November the losses reached a total of 1,300,000 men.
On the 23 July, not long after the Battle of the Somme commenced, the Australians took over and captured the main German line at Pozieres. The Australian 1st Division Memorial at Pozieres stands over this line. At the cost of 23,000 casualties the Australians captured most of the main ridge. The tour viewed the German blockhouse ‘Gibraltar’ which became one of the only features on the razed landscape of Pozieres. From this point the Anzacs (and the tour) moved towards the windmill site and then advanced to Mouquet Farm.
