Lachlan Grant

Lachlan Grant joined the Australian War Memorial in 2011 as an Historian in the Military History Section. He holds a PhD and MA in History from Monash University and specialises in the social, cultural, and military history of the Second World War. His research interests include the prisoner-of-war experience, Australian military encounters with Asia and empire, and Australia’s Second World War in Europe. Lachlan previously worked as a Lecturer in Modern History at Monash University where he taught in the undergraduate history program from 2005-2011. His PhD thesis examines the attitudes and outlooks of Australian soldiers as they encountered the diverse peoples, cultures and empires of Asia-Pacific during the Second World War. A manuscript based on this research is currently being developed for publication as a book. Lachlan’s MA thesis examines the commemoration and memorialisation of the Australian prisoner-of-war experience. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals and he has presented his findings at international conferences. He has also served as an editor and reviews editor of an academic peer-reviewed journal and is a regular contributor of book reviews.

Please feel free to contact Lachlan if you have any enquiries about his research and areas of expertise.

Selected publications

“Berchtesgaden: the last raid”, Wartime, no. 61, January 2013.

 “From Daylesford to Villers-Bretonneux: how the work of a Victorian artist reached a school in France”, Wartime, no. 60, October 2012.

 “The Changi Brownlow”, Weekend Australian, 22-23 September 2012.

 “The Marco Polo diggers: why did Australian commandos spend months in China in 1942?”, Wartime, no. 59, July 2012.

“The AIF and the end of empires: soldiers’ attitudes toward a ‘Free Asia’”, Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 57, no. 4, December 2011, pp. 479–94.

The AIF in Asia and the Pacific 1941–1945: A reorientation in attitudes toward Asia, Empire and Nation (PhD thesis: Monash University, 2010).

‘Monument and ceremony: the Australian Ex–Prisoners of War Memorial and the Anzac Legend’, in Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack (eds), Forgotten Captives in Japanese–Occupied Asia (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2008), pp. 41–56.

“What makes a ‘National Memorial’? The case of the Australian Ex–Prisoners of War Memorial”, Public History Review, vol. 12, 2006, pp. 92–102.

Mateship, Memory and the Australian Ex–Prisoners of War Memorial: Incorporating the Prisoner of War experience within the Anzac Legend (MA thesis: Monash University, 2005).

“The Australian Ex–Prisoners of War Memorial and the incorporation of prisoners of war in Anzac”,in Proceedings and Papers of the Japanese Occupation: Sixty Years After the End of the Asia–Pacific War Conference, 5–6 September 2005 (Singapore: National History Museum of Singapore, 2005), pp. 147–58.

Selected Conference and Seminar papers

“A Pacific War postscript: The AIF and the Indonesian Independence Movement’, Australian War Memorial, 4 September 2012.

 “The fall of Singapore 1942: 70th Anniversary Address”, Australian War Memorial, 15 February 2012.

“‘Good neighbours’ or ‘police dogs of imperialism’: Australian soldiers’ attitudes to Asia and empire in the Second World War”, The Pacific War 1941–45: Heritage, Legacies & Culture, Monash University, Australia, 5–7 December 2011.

“Myths and memories of Australia’s Second World War in Asia and the Pacific”, The Second World War, Popular Cultural and Cultural Memory, University of Brighton, United Kingdom, 13–15 July 2011.

“‘The dawn comes up like thunder’: AIF impressions of Asia and the Pacific during the Second World War’, Locating History: Australian Historical Association 14th Biennial National Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia, 7–10 July 2008.

“ ‘Not like in the Dorothy Lamour film …’: Australian military forces in Asia and the Pacific during the Second World War”, Monash University, Australia, 2 March 2007.

“Travel, literature and Australian soldiers abroad in Asia 1941–1945”, Monash University, Australia, 1 September 2006.

“Reassessing the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in popular memory”, Mateship: Trust and Exclusion in Australian History, Trades Hall, Melbourne, Australia, 16–17 February 2006.

“The Australian Ex–Prisoners of War Memorial: incorporating the prisoner-of-war experience into the Anzac legend”, The Japanese Occupation: Sixty Years After the End of the Asia–Pacific War Conference, Singapore History Museum, Singapore, 5–6 September 2005.