Introduction to the Commemorative Roll

Background

The Commemorative Roll records the names of those Australians who died during or as a result of wars in which Australians served, but who were not serving in the Australian Armed Forces and therefore not eligible for inclusion on the Roll of Honour. It includes those Australians who died while members of Allied Forces, the Merchant Navy, philanthropic organisations attached to the forces, or as war correspondents or photographers.

The names in the Commemorative Roll are also listed in a Commemorative Book, which is on public display adjacent to the Roll of Honour at the opposite end to the Memorial's Hall of Memory.

The Commemorative Roll was developed through appeals to the public for nominations, beginning in 1981. Names forwarded as a result of these appeals were incorporated in a card index by AWM staff. Other names were obtained from secondary sources and added to the index. The card index is an archival series housed in the Research Centre and is known as AWM272 - Card Index supporting the Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll, 1981-1990. This database is based on that card index. Names are still being accepted for consideration for inclusion in the Commemorative Roll, provided they meet the eligibility criteria and supporting documentation can be provided.

Eligibility for inclusion

The following eligibility criteria apply to the inclusion of names on the Commemorative Roll:

death was war-caused and suffered during continuous, full-time service
the person was born in Australia or the last place of domicile was Australia
the date range in which death occurred must be the same as that for the Roll of Honour.

Those who died during these periods of conflict while serving in the Australian Armed Forces will be included in the Roll of Honour.

Content

Records in the database contain the personal particulars, unit and the date of death of each person. Some records may contain cemetery details and next of kin. For further information regarding the cemetery see Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register.
A small percentage of the database records have digital images of Roll of Honour circulars attached. For the First World War the circulars were forms sent to next of kin seeking details regarding the deceased. For the Second World War these were forms completed by the Directorate of the War Graves Services. These circulars were filled in anticipation that the deceased would be eligible for the Roll of Honour. Where the desceased was not eligible for the Roll of Honour, but was eligible for the Commemorative Roll, the corresponding circular has been attached. Unfortunately circulars were not completed for each of the deceased. The digital images are stored in pdf format. If your browser will not open the images, you may need to download Acrobat Reader.
The Memorial is progressively attaching photographs, when available and appropriate, to the database records. Other photographs of the individuals may be found in the collections database.

Tips for searching

Searching on a combination of surname and conflict produces the most reliable results.
If this produces too large a result, narrow the search by including the service number (eg +vx41962) and/or first names or initials, as not all people are listed with full names.
You can search by date of death. 1st November 1943 should be entered as 01/11/1943.
You can search by unit, town or any other terms by using the keyword search box. Note that many unit names have not been standardised so search results may be unreliable.
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Further information

Enquiries relating to information contained in this database, including corrections, should be directed to the Research Centre.
Please note military service records are not held by the Australian War Memorial. They can be obtained through the National Archives of Australia.
For military service records of Australian's serving with Allied Forces please refer to Personal service records - countries other than Australia.