Memorial Articles

There are a multitude of stories recorded in the letters and diaries held at the Memorial that reflect on the signing of the Armistice and the war coming to an end.

When Bill Newton said goodbye to his mother, he told her not to worry, that if something happened to him, she was not to make a fuss. She never saw him again.

Slim de Grey was left devastated when his best mate was taken from Changi to Sandakan during the Second World War. Shortly after he composed the song They’ve Taken My Old Pal Away. It put into words how many of the men at Changi felt about being separated from their mates.

When Sister Betty Jeffrey stood before her fellow prisoners of war in Sumatra and started to sing, she could almost forget where she was.

When Andy Harrison was a child growing up in Sydney, there was a painting of a ship hanging on the wall of his family home. It had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember, but it wasn’t until he was older that he understood its significance.

On 20 October 1992 two Australian officers landed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and a city wracked by civil war.

Dayle Shafer was going through a box of her father’s things after he died when she found an old silver cigarette case and lighter. They were beautifully engraved with the initials C.G.W., but no one knew where they came from or who they belonged to.

Since forming in October 2019 the Memorial’s Gallery Development team has managed an extensive engagement program focused on uncovering and collecting the contemporary stories of service and sacrifice that will be told in the Memorials new galleries.

The Work of the Australian Army’s Base Post Office at Kantara in Egypt during the First World War.