Aaron Pegram

Aaron Pegram is a historian in the Military History Section at the Australian War Memorial where he was recently appointed Historian – First World War Centenary Projects. Aaron is a tour leader and historical guide for the Memorial’s battlefield tours to the Western Front, and has published extensively on the First World War and other areas of military history in the Memorial’s magazine, Wartime. In 2011, Aaron re-published an edited version of William Cull’s record of captivity in Germany during the First World War, Both sides of the wire: the memoir of an Australian officer captured in the Great War. A history graduate of Charles Sturt University and a recipient of a research grant from the Australian Army History Unit, Aaron is currently completing a PhD thesis on Australian prisoners in Germany during the First World War at the Australian National University. 

Edited works

William Cull, Both sides of the wire: the memoir of an Australian officer captured during the Great War, ed. Aaron Pegram, Allen and Unwin, 2011

Selected publications

Review of “Raiding on the Western Front” by Anthony Saunders, Wartime, 62, 2013

"Informing the enemy: Australian prisoners, German intelligence and the war on the Western Front, 1916-1918", Journal of the international society of First World War studies (forthcoming 2013)

“‘The Bosches seem to have done pretty much what they intended to do’: I ANZAC Corps and the German raid on the Bridoux Salient, 5/6 May 1916’, Stand To! Journal of the Western Front Association (forthcoming 2013)

“Gallantry in Afghanistan”, Wartime, 61, 2013

"Men of Colditz" in Nola Anderson, Australian War Memorial: treasures from a centenary of collecting (Millers Point: Murdoch Books, 2012): 316-319

“Giving the game away”, Wartime, 57, 2011

Review of Fighting Nineteenth, by Wayne Matthews and David Wilson, Wartime, 56, 2011

Review of The battle of Fromelles 1916, by Roger Lee, Wartime, 53, 2010

“Bold bids for freedom”, Wartime, 52, 2010

“There will be no live VCs for 8 Group”, Wartime, 51, 2010

Review of Don’t forget me cobber: the battle of Fromelles, by Robin Corfield, Wartime, 50, 2010

Review of The Wolf, by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen, Wartime, 48, 2009

“Shots from along the trail”, Wartime, 48, 2009

“The spirit of the bayonet”, Wartime, 47, 2009

“A shot in the dark”, Wartime, 47, 2009

Review of Aussie Soldier: Prisoner of war, ed. Dennie Neave and Craig Smith, Wartime, 47, 2009

“The arms of black melancholy”, Wartime, 46, 2009

Review of In action with the SAS, by David Horner with Neil Thomas, Wartime, 46, 2009

Review of The war behind the wire, ed. Michael Caulfield, Wartime, 45, 2009

“Australia’s Fromelles prisoners”, Wartime, 44, 2008

“McDougall’s stand at Dernancourt”, Wartime, 42, 2008

“German offensive tactics”, Wartime, 42, 2008

Conference papers and seminars

“Caged Birds: the capture and imprisonment of Australian Flying Corps airmen, 1915-1918”, By the seat of their pants: Australian airmen and their machines 1915-1918, Military History and Heritage Victoria conference, RAAF Museum, Point Cook, 12 November 2012

“Giving the game away: Australian prisoners, German intelligence, and the war on the Western Front, 1916-18”, the Military Historical Society of Australia biennial conference, Hellenic Club Civic, Canberra, 9 September 2012

“Black bread, barbed wire: Australians and the German spring reprisals of 1917”, Estaminet: Canberra’s First World War study group, National Museum of Australia, 25 November 2011

“In the bag: Australian prisoners in German captivity during the First World War, 1916–1918”, Constructing the Past,Australian Historical Association Conference, University of the Sunshine Coast, 30 June – 3 July 2009

“The bounds of silence: the capture of Australian prisoners on the Western Front, 1916–1918”, Research School of Humanities first-year students’ conference, Australian National University, 25–26 August 2008

“Polygon Wood: battlefield, mythical place, site of mourning”, the Australian Society of Archivists, National Museum of Australia, 13 November 2007

“Men from Snowy River: a First World War recruitment march”, 90th anniversary commemorations of the Men from Snowy River recruitment march, Delegate Town Hall, 16 January 2006