Lachlan Grant

Dr Lachlan Grant is a Senior Historian in the Military History Section and Concept Developer in the Galley Development Team co-curating the Second World War and First World War displays in Anzac Hall.

Lachlan joined the Australian War Memorial in 2011 from Monash University, where he completed his PhD (2010) and MA (2005). He has published widely on Australian experiences in the Second World War, specialising in the prisoner-of-war experience and Australia’s war in Europe. Lachlan has worked on several exhibitions, including as lead historian and co-curator on both the Memorial’s Holocaust, and the Battle of Milne Bay displays. Since 2015 Lachlan has been the Memorial’s battlefield guide for the Simpson Prize, leading tours to Gallipoli and the Western Front and is a member of the editorial staff for the Memorial’s Wartime magazine.

Lachlan is the author of Australian soldiers in Asia and the Pacific in World War II (2014) and the editor (with Michael Bell) of For Country, For Nation: An Illustrated History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Military Service (2018); The Changi book (2015); and co-editor with Joan Beaumont and Aaron Pegram, Beyond surrender: Australian prisoners of war in the twentieth century (2015). In his spare time, Lachlan is working on books on the Australians in Bomber Command, as well as the on the Australians who took part in D-Day and the battle of Normandy.

• Click here for full list of Lachlan’s publications (including book chapters and articles).

Selected conferences, seminar papers, and talks

• “Recovering memories of prisoners of war: seventy years on”, Sir Albert Coates Oration, Federation University, Ballarat, 22 October 2015.
• "Producing The Changi book: 70 years on", Australian War Memorial, 26 August 2015.
• "Rediscovering Changi: highlights from the Australian war memorial’s collection" in Victory in the Pacific: war and art symposium, Australian War Memorial, 15 August 2015.
• "One job left to do: the difficult task facing the Australian military forces policing Indonesia in the immediate aftermath of the Pacific war, August 1945–February 1946" in The Asia–Pacific war 1931–1945 conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 9–11 July 2015
• "Australia and the Second World War in Europe", Australian War Memorial, 5 June 2015.
• "Rethinking Australia’s Second World War encounters with south-east Asia and New Guinea", Australian War Memorial, 3 June 2015.
• Australian War Memorial battlefield guide, Simpson Prize group, Gallipoli, Turkey, 16–29 April 2015.
• "Remembering Stalag XVIIIA Wolfsberg: the experiences of Australian prisoners of war in Nazi Germany", Australian War Memorial, 7 February 2015.
• "Making friends with all races and creeds? AIF encounters with Asia and empire 1941–1942", Australian War Memorial, 24 November 2014.
• "The end of the line: the experiences of Australian prisoners of war in Japan", Australian National University, 12 August 2014.
• "The Nazi–Soviet war: the Eastern Front in Western memory", Australian War Memorial, 12 August 2014.
• "International law and the transportation of prisoners of war in the Second World War", Australian War Memorial, 7 May 2014.
• “Hellships, prisoner transport, and unrestricted submarine warfare in the Second World War” in Prisoners of war: the Australian experience of captivity in the twentieth century conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 5–6 June 2013.
• “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 and culture conference, Monash University, Melbourne, 5–7 December 2011.
• “Myths and memories of Australia’s Second World War in Asia and the Pacific”, The Second World War: popular culture and cultural memory conference, University of Brighton, UK, 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, Melbourne, 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, Melbourne, 2 March 2007.
• “Travel, literature, and Australian soldiers abroad in Asia 1941–1945”, Monash University, Melbourne, 1 September 2006.
• “Reassessing the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in popular memory”, Mateship: trust and exclusion in Australian history conference, Trades Hall, Melbourne, 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, National History Museum of Singapore, 5–6 September 2005.