Digitisation project – Seeking further information
Digitised Collections
The Australian War Memorial is digitising items from the National Collection; preserving records of wartime experiences and creating a comprehensive digital archive of Australian servicemen, servicewomen, nurses, and civilians, their deeds, and of the wider Australian experience of war, making them available for research and study via the Memorial’s website.
Are you related?
As part of this project the Memorial is seeking contact with relatives of the persons listed below. If are you related to these people, or in contact with their descendants, the Memorial would love to talk to you. Please contact Digitised Collections via email on Digitised.Collections@awm.gov.au
Click on any of the names in the table below to read more about the person.
William Steven Andrews
William Steven Andrews was born on 11 October 1894 in Oakleigh, Victoria, to Willie Abraham and Jane (née Humphries) Andrews. He was the oldest of nine children. In 1913 he married May Learmonth and they had four daughters: Lily (1914–90), Dorothy Jane (1915–79), Iris May (1916–2012), and Ivy Jean (1918–2016). The family lived near Ballarat, Victoria, and over the years Andrews worked as a Salvation Army officer, miner, wood merchant, and assurance agent. He enlisted to serve in the Second World War as part of the Australian Imperial Force on 30 January 1940, and was assigned the service number VX10115. However, he recorded his birth year incorrectly on his service record in order to meet the age requirements. Andrews was a corporal in 2/17th Battalion and served in North Africa. However, he was captured as a prisoner of war and spent time in Axis internment camps, including Gruppignago camp near Udine, Italy. After the war, Andrews returned to Australia and settled in Warners Bay, New South Wales. He died on 9 June 1968. An illustration by Andrews can be found in PR00042, the collection of Patrick Joseph Lattin.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C262150.
Rosi Fanniger
Rosi Fanniger lived in the Austrian village of Gratkorn during the Second World War. Her family owned a local inn, the Gasthaus Pucher, and was assigned several prisoners of war to work and be interned there. One of these prisoners was Australian Private Malcolm William Keshan. He and Rosi, who was a young girl at the time, became friends, and in 1985 Keshan returned to Gratkorn to visit her. By that time, she had married Heribert Huber, and had a daughter and son. Rosi was still living in Gratkorn and running the Gasthaus Pucher in 1996.The inn remains a family business to this day. A translation of a letter written by Rosi Fanniger can be found in PR06082, as part of the collection of Malcolm Keshan.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2107122
Alexander Fraser
Alexander “Lex” Fraser was born on 9 March 1919 in Ingham, Queensland, to Frank and Isabella Henderson Fraser. Lex had an older sister, Isabella Henderson “Billy” Fraser (1915–97), and an older brother, Frank “Dick” Fraser (1917–99), and they grew up on the family grazing property at Ingham. Alexander Fraser enlisted to serve in the Second World War and was assigned the service number QX6470. He had the rank of captain, and was second in command of No. 1 Independent Company, serving on New Ireland in New Guinea. He was captured by the Japanese in early 1942 along with other officers of the Company, and was interned in Zentsuji prisoner-of-war Camp until the end of the war. After his return to Australia, Fraser married Marion Alice Carr on 15 December 1945. They lived in Ingham, and it is believed that they had two children. Fraser worked as a clerk. He died on 30 November 2013 at Ingham at the age of 94. A card written by him can be found in AWM2016.633.3, in the collection of Jack Lusby Burns.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2147619.
Edward Leonard Morgan
Edward Leonard Morgan was born on 23 July 1915 in Melbourne. When he grew older, he moved to Haberfield, Sydney, where he met his future wife, Jeanne Amelia Johnson, a shopkeeper. Morgan enlisted to serve in the Second World War on 4 June 1940. He was assigned the service number NX20137, and attached to the Royal Australian Engineers as a sapper. He served in North Africa, but was taken by Axis powers as a prisoner of war in August 1941. Morgan spent time in prisoner-of-war camps, including the Gruppignago camp near Udine, Italy. After the camp was liberated he returned to Australia and was discharged on 2 August 1945. Later that year, Morgan married Jeanne in Petersham, New South Wales. They settled back in Haberfield, where Morgan worked as an instrument maker. By 1958 they had moved to Ashfield, and he had become a signwriter. The couple lived in Ashfield until their old age, and Morgan died there in early March 1994. A page illustrated by him can be found in PR00042, in the collection of Patrick Joseph Lattin.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C262150.
Russell Byron Morres
Russell Byron Morres was born on 28 January 1907 in Cheltenham, Melbourne, to Leslie Byron and Hilda May (née Burn) Morres. He had a brother, Allan Byron Morres (c. 1905–52), and a sister, Margaret Heather Byron Morres (1908–?). Russell lived in Caulfield and worked as a salesperson for Sands and McDougall, a prominent printer and stationery company. He married Lilian Warwick Walker in 1934, and they settled in Oakleigh. Morres enlisted to serve in the Second World War on 22 July 1940 as part of the Australian Imperial Force. He was assigned the service number VX29826, and was a gunner in the 2/3rd Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 8th Battery. He served in North Africa, but was captured and made a prisoner of war in 1941. He spent time in prisoner-of-war camps, including the Gruppignago camp near Udine, Italy. After the war, Morres returned to live in Oakleigh and continued his work as a sales person. It appears that he and Lilian divorced at some point between 1949 and 1955. Morres was married again in 1957, this time to Lorna Helen Newton, a dental nurse. He travelled in his retirement, and died on 25 August 1973 in Heidelberg, Melbourne. A page illustrated by him can be found in PR00042, in the collection of Patrick Joseph Lattin.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C262150.
Jean Newall
Jean Verna (née McKenzie) Newall OAM was born at Rose Bay, Sydney, to Donald McKenzie and his wife. She attended St Paul’s Anglican Church in Rose Bay, where she met her husband, Peter Frederick Newall (1923–2014). They married on 11 March 1950, and had two children, Peter and Miriam. Newell was a teacher, and worked in both country New South Wales and Sydney. In 1978, she started to work at New England Girls School in Sydney as an English and French teacher and librarian. Newell retired in 1994, but stayed on at the school as an archivist. She was dedicated to preserving local history, and authored several historical books. In 2006 Newell was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her community work in local history. She died on 25 September 2015. A letter written by her can be found in PR84/150, in the collection of William McKenzie.
Further information about this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C91701.
Bernhard Samitsch
Bernhard Samitsch assisted with the research for the photographic book Gratkorn in Alten Ansichten (Old views of Gratkorn) by Ingo Mirsch, published in 1996. A letter written by Samitsch can be found in PR06082, in the collection of Malcolm William Keshan.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2107122
Patricia Audrey Stanfield
Patricia Audrey “Pat” Stanfield was born in Naini Tal, India, on 5 September 1922 to Stanley Ernest and Audrey Grace Stanfield. Patricia had an older brother, James, a younger sister, Diane Elizabeth, and a younger brother, John. She lived with her family on New Ireland, New Guinea, before being evacuated to Australia in December 1941, before the Japanese invaded the island. She then enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and served as a wireless operator in the Brisbane office. Her brother James was serving with No. 455 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, but was shot down over Germany in December 1942. Pat Stanfield married Peter Murray in March 1951, and they had four children: Anne (1952), Alastair (1953), Rosalind (1957) and Evelyn (1960). The couple moved to Australia in 1982 and eventually made a home in Toronto, New South Wales. Stanfield died on 7 May 2006. Three letters written by her can be found in AWM2016.485.1, in the collection of Jack Lusby Burns.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2148027.
Lancelot Johnston Taylor
Lancelot Johnston Taylor was born on 21 March 1913 at Wellington Mill near Bunbury, Western Australia, to grocer Alfred Taylor and his wife, Stella Isabella (née Flynn-Hay). Lancelot had a sister, Helen May (1916–66) and a brother, Cecil George (1919–21). He grew up in Bunbury, and later became a civil servant in Kununoppin, Western Australia. He married Wilma Dorothea Peake, and they had one daughter. Taylor enlisted to serve in the Second World War as part of the Australian Imperial Force on 2 August 1940. He was assigned the service number WX7305, and was attached to the 2/28th Battalion. He was involved in the defence of Tobruk in the first half of 1941, but was made a prisoner of war and interned in the Gruppignago camp near Udine, Italy. After the war, Taylor returned to Australia and was discharged on 26 September 1945. He became a salesman and lived with his family in Busseltown, Western Australia. As time when on, he became a manager. Taylor died in 1977, at the age of 64. A page illustrated by him can be found in PR00042, in the collection of Patrick Joseph Lattin.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C262150.
David Albert Woolland
David Albert Woolland was born on 19 August 1912 in Manly, New South Wales, to George Albert and Ruby Frances (née Price) Woolland. His brother, Harry Kenneth Percival Woolland, was born in 1913. David lived in Manly and worked as a gardener. He enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force on 30 May 1940, and was assigned the service number NX18872. He served with the 2/13th Battalion in Libya, and took part in the battle at Er Regima on 4 April 1941. After this battle Woolland was reported missing, and was erroneously believed to have died. He was later reported to be in a prisoner of war on 18 July 1941. He spent time in Axis prisoner-of-war camps, including the Gruppignago camp near Udine, Italy. After the war Woolland returned to Australia resumed his work as a gardener. He settled back into Manly, where he remained for the rest of his life. Records indicate that he did not marry. Woolland died on 4 March 1987 and was buried at French’s Forest Cemetery. A page illustrated by him can be found in PR00042, in the collection of Patrick Joseph Lattin.
Further information on this collection can be found at https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C262150.