Memorial Articles

In 2016, Research Officer Amy Pym came across a fragile-looking book. On the front was the title “NX172702; Pte Allan ‘Bluey’ Bartlett; 2/17 Inf. Btn; Personal Experiences 1945”. It was her late grandfather's war diary...

It’s a nerve-racking moment for Dr Charles Robb. The Brisbane-based artist has wrangled approximately 200 kilograms of clay to create a sculptural portrait of Second World War nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, and is watching on as the final bronze sculpture is being craned into position at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

At the beginning of 1942, George Mackisack’s family received word that he was in a convalescent hospital in Singapore, recovering from wounds received in an air attack. This was the last news they would receive for almost a year.

While considering objects for inclusion in Action! War and Film, one item I definitely had to have was an electrified Bell and Howell 35mm Eyemo cine camera. 

When Andrew Fox-Lane donated his helmet camera to the Australian War Memorial in 2013, the helmet and mounting systems did not come with it.

Vivian Bullwinkel thought she was going to die. The 26-year-old Australian army nurse had escaped the fall of Singapore, and survived the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke, clinging to a life raft before making it ashore at Radji Beach on Banka Island. There, 22 Australian nurses were forced into the ocean and shot by Japanese soldiers. Bullwinkel was the only survivor.

Australian cine-cameraman and correspondent Neil Davis experienced and recorded various conflicts throughout the south-east Asian region between the 1960s and 1980s. 

Stephen Mullawalla Dodd featured in some of Australia’s most iconic films and television shows, but he put his career on hold to play a little known role in the Korean War.

Stafford Kenny James “Len” Lenoy served in New Guinea during the Second World War, and then with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Japan, but was killed in Korea in April 1951 during the battle of Kapyong.