The Simpson Prize 2027

Please Note: These sources can only be used in a response to the 2027 Simpson Prize Question about the First World War (WW1)

 

Source A

Metal watercolour paint box with note, belonging to Sapper Louis Vasco, 11th Field Company Engineers AIF. (Cardboard, Enamelled steel, AWM REL/03408.002)

 

Caption:

Rectangular black enamelled steel paint box with a large amount of rust on the front and back. The back plate of the paint box has a metal ring attached. Inside, the paint box has a rectangular palette made up of twelve small rectangular paint carriers. On the left hand side of this there is a small area for artist materials. There is another area at the front of the palate box to hold brushes. The top right hand corner has been damaged from shrapnel. Vasco has included a note in this pallet that states: 'This might interest the Gough's. When we were shelled out of our digs my water-colour box stopped one on the Somme'.

Vasco enlisted at Brisbane on 11 May 1916 and recorded his previous trade as caricature artist and draftsman. He enlisted with 11th Field Company Engineers and embarked at Sydney on 11 November 1916 and arrived in Devonport, England on 30 January 1917 for further training. He arrived at France on the 16 May 1917. On the 25 May 1918 he was admitted to a field hospital with a spinal cord injury. He was then transferred to England for treatment. The injury became infected and the bacteria travelled to his brain. He died of Meningitis on the 3 August 1918 at Napsbury Hospital, Saint Albans, Herfordshire and is buried at the 'Soldiers Corner' Hatfield Road Cemetery in Saint Albans.

 

Source B

 

Map belonging to General John Monash. Used in the planning and directing of the Battle of Hamel, 4th July 1918.  (AWM, RCDIG0000632)

 

 

Maps such as this item played a vital role in military battles such as the highly successful attack at Le Hamel on 4 July 1918. The Battle was the first time Monash was corps commander. The battle launched him to military prominence and would serve as a tactical blueprint for future battles in the war.

 

Source C

 

Steel lifeboat from HMT Ascot (A33), used in the landings at Gallipoli by 13th Battalion AIF, (AWM, RELAWM05086.00)

 

Caption:

This steel lifeboat is from HMT (A33) Ascot and was used by 13th Battalion AIF during the landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. There are several bullet holes in both sides of the bow, in the middle of the port (left) side, and more in the stern on the same side.

This lifeboat became stranded on the beach at Anzac Cove and remained there until 14 September 1921, when it was dispatched to Australia. The Imperial War Graves unit that recovered it from the beach, had to cut it in half to get it around the sharp curves in the roads they had built along the hills. The only marking on the boat was the number '6'.

 

Source D

 

Sulphur crested cockatoo 'Cocky': No 1 Rest Home, Melbourne,( AWM,RELAWM08024)

 

Caption:

'Cocky' was hatched at 'Wappan', near Bonnie Doon, Victoria, in 1878. He already had an extensive vocabulary of 'polite' English phrases, when he was lent by his owner, Mrs Anne Fraser Bon, to No. 1 Rest Home at Wirth's Park in Melbourne in late 1917. The home housed wounded convalescent returned soldiers, who were undergoing rehabilitation and retraining before being discharged. Cocky was lent to the home by Mrs Bon to cheer the men up and was the mascot of one of the wings of the house. A 'most wicked yet fascinating' magpie called Josephine was the mascot of the other wing.

Cocky, coached by the soldiers, rapidly acquired the ability to speak more 'picturesque' phrases, as well as some German words. Nurses, who had worked at Wirth's Park, were contacted in the 1920s but refused, out of delicacy, to repeat what Cocky had said. They did recall two of his less colourful phrases. One was 'Show your pass!' spoken to men going on day leave. Newcomers to the home were often fooled and as they looked in their pockets for their pass Cocky would jump up and down on his perch. Men that teased the bird were told 'Go on, you're a German!'.

 

Source E

 

Painting by artist George Lambert, The Charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, 1917 (1920, oil on canvas, 122.7 x 247.1 cm, AWM ART02811)

 

Caption:

Late on 31 October 1917 the 4th Light Horse Brigade was ordered to gallop towards Beersheba and seize the town. Two regiments, the 4th and the 12th, made the charge. This bold and successful move was one of the last major cavalry charges in history. Lambert's work depicts the impact of men and horses on the Turkish troops and trenches. A tangled mass of horses and soldiers is shown against a backdrop of barren and undulating landscape. The buildings of the town are just visible on the horizon at left.

 

Source F

 

Painting by artist Ellis Silas, Roll Call, 1915 (1920, oil on canvas, 101.8 cm x 153.1 cm, AWM, ART02436)

 

Caption:

 

Roll call was always the most heart-breaking event. Name after name would be called, the reply a deep silence, which would be felt despite the noise of the incessant crackling of rifles and screaming of shrapnel. The roll call depicted was taken on the morning after a charge on Sunday night, 9 May 1915. As a signaler Ellis Silas landed on Gallipoli with the 16th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, which was committed to constant, desperate fighting. In those first weeks the battalion was reduced to two companies. Ellis Silas was moved to paint this picture by his recollections as a survivor.

(AWM, ART02436)

 

Source G

Lone Pine Diorama, an exhibit at the Australian War Memorial (1924-27, figures: oil, wax on lead; background: synthetic polymer paint with oil and gold leaf on plywood; modelling: dry colour on plaster over wood and wire, Overall: 380 x 880 x 510 cm; AWM ART41017)

 

Caption:

This diorama depicts the attack on the Turkish position known as Lone Pine on 6 August 1915. As the sun was sinking behind Imbros and Samothrace, the Anzacs made their determined charge against the enemy’s position. The trenches were roofed over with pine-logs which the Australians tore away and then lowered themselves down to be met by the waiting enemy. Others, too impatient to rip away the logs, gained entry through the sally-ports and the breaches made by the bombardments. The position was captured within twenty minutes and held after four days of counter-attack and 2000 casualties.

Work began on the Lone Pine diorama in 1924. It is likely that when first exhibited in Melbourne the figures were originally made of plasticine which were cast in metal at a later date. Louis McCubbin painted the original figures and background.

 

Source H

Painting by artist Will Dyson, The amateur,`Who's cutting this hair, you or me?', 1916-17 (1920, oil on cardboard, framed: 77.4 x 66.4 cm x 7.8 cm, AWM ART02434)

 

Caption:

Depicts two Australian soldiers outside their billet in France, one cutting the other's hair in a rough and awkward manner. Will Dyson was the first Australian official war artist to visit the front during the First World War, travelling to France in December 1916, remaining there until May 1917, making records of the Australian involvement in the war. Dyson was appointed an Official War Artist, attached to the AIF, in May 1917, working in France and London throughout the war. His commission was terminated in March 1920.

 

Source I

Extracts from two newspaper articles discussing how Australian soldiers are portrayed by artists in World War One

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 21 February 1929, p. 2

 

Diggers Like “Mammas’ Boys,” Says Monash; But in Fight!

“In the matter of looks the Digger is mostly a sweet-faced, round-faced mumma’s boy. I’ve seen tens of thousands of them.” Thus Sir John Monash, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Forces in France, commented last night on the cabled statement of Sir Thomas Legge that “the most handsome men the world had seen were among the first 100,000 Australians who came over to England during the war.”

 

Handsome! — No

“The first 25,000 Australians particularly”, said Sir John Monash, “who fought on Gallipoli, were perfect physical specimens, but handsome! — it’s a word that doesn’t apply.”

“Their faces were round and smooth and innocent-looking — I said innocent-looking — and for all the world they appealed to me as mothers’ boys. But see them operate with bayonet … and then you get another impression of the ‘Digger’”.

 

As a Fighter!

“There was nothing ‘handsome’ about the Aussie; but, by heavens, as a fighter he was a wonder. And that sweet, round face of his tricked more than one unhappy warrior on the other side. I think artists like Will Dyson, Norman Lindsay, and others have failed to reproduce the typical ‘Digger’ face. They make him a gaunt, haggard man with harshness written on every facial line. They’re, wrong!”

 

The Sun (Sydney), 22 February 1929, p. 6

Australian Digger “was haggard”, Dyson replies, Melbourne, Friday.

Replying to Sir John Monash’s complaint that Australian artists had made the Australian Digger “gaunt and haggard, with harshness in every facial line”, Will Dyson said yesterday that in the war he believed that the Digger was gaunt and haggard.

"He may have been sweet, and a mummy’s boy, as he often was in character, but the nature of his work and his environment”, Dyson added, “shut out the possibility of him facially expressing those qualities.”

Please Note: These sources can only be used in a response to the 2027 Simpson Prize Question about the Second World War (WW2)

Source A

Engraved cigarette case : Sergeant R W Saunders 2/7th Battalion AIF (1939-45, Chrome-plated metal, AWM REL/18642)

 

Caption:

Cigarette case carried by Sergeant Reg Saunders during his service in the Middle East and Mediterranean. The interior of the case is scratched with details of his military service, including areas where he served. Reginald Walter Saunders was born in 1920, at Purnim, Victoria, near the Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve. He came from a long line of soldiers, with his community in Western Victoria being known as the 'fighting Gunditjmara' for their extensive and proud contributions to the defence of Australia over several generations.

Both his father and his uncle served in the First World War. His uncle, Reg Rawlings, for whom he was named, received a Military Medal for action at Morlancourt Ridge, France. Rawlings was killed in action at Vauvillers, in 1918. In the Second World War, Reg Saunders and his brother Harry both served in the Army. Harry was killed in action in New Guinea near Buna and is buried at Bomana Cemetery in Port Moresby. Reg saw action in North Africa at Benghazi, in Greece, and spent 12 months behind German lines on occupied Crete. After being rescued with other Allied servicemen by a British submarine he eventually returned to Australia. He saw service on the Kokoda Trail and was shot in the knee but returned to the 2/7th Infantry Battalion after his recovery.

 

Source B

A surviving Carley float from HMAS Sydney (II) (1942, AWM 135152)

 

Caption:

A Carley float, associated with HMAS Sydney (II) displayed almost continuously since June 1942, at the Australian War Memorial. The original exhibition label, based on information provided by the Royal Australian Navy, read:

A Carley life float, the sole relic of HMAS Sydney's last engagement. Damaged by machine gun and shellfire, with two empty lifebelts lying in it, this float was recovered from the sea by HMAS Heros 200 miles from Carnarvon on 27 November 1941. HMAS Sydney sank with all hands after sinking the heavily armed German raider Steiermark (also known as Kormoran).

The circumstances surrounding the loss of HMAS Sydney (II) generated much controversy and conjecture. In 2008 the Government funded a search for both ships, which on 12 March 2008 found the wreck of HSK Kormoran approximately 210 kilometres miles off Steep Point, Western Australia, at a depth of 2560 metres. On 17 March the wreck of HMAS Sydney (II) was found lying at a depth of 2468 metres, approximately 21 kilometres to the south of the wreck of the Kormoran.

Australian War Memorial (135152)

 

Source C

Grey tropical working dress worn by Staff Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, 2/13th Australian General Hopital, (1941-45, AWM REL/06376.001)

 

Caption:

This uniform was worn by Vivian Bullwinkel when she survived being shot by Japanese soldiers at Banka Island. She was one of the group of 22 Australian nurses who had been captured after the sinking of the Vyner Brooke in 1942.

The Japanese were still on the beach and after a further period of unconsciousness she found herself alone surrounded by the dead. She moved into the jungle on the edge of the beach where she met a badly wounded Englishman. They stayed in the jungle for ten days supplied with food by women from a local village, before surrendering to a Japanese naval patrol. Bullwinkel disguised her injuries by adjusting the belt of her dress to cover the entry and exit holes from the bullet. She joined the other surviving nurses in captivity as a prisoner of war.

A bullet entry hole can be seen in the left side of the back bodice, 10mm above the waist seam and 55mm from the left side seam. The exit hole is located 35mm above the waist seam at the left centre front. 

 

Source D

Pattern water bottle with false bottom: Selarang Barracks Square, Singapore (1941-45, Cork, Cotton, Enamelled steel, Wool felt, AWM RELAWM20448)

 

 

Caption:

This Australian Army issue water bottle has a constructed false bottom. Members of the 2/12th Field Company Royal Australian Engineers doctored the original water bottle to conceal photographs of the 'Selarang Barracks Square incident'. The water bottle was brought back to Australia by TX4274 Corporal John William Little, 8 Supply Personnel Section AIF, who was a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaya. 

 

Source E

Painting by artist Ivor Hele, Australian troops disembarking at Alexandria after the evacuation of Greece, 1941 (1943, oil on canvas, 136.9 x 206 cm, AWM ART22230)

Caption:

Exhausted Australian soldiers disembarking from trains at Alexandria after the evacuation of Greece. Hele was in Alexandria to observe the arrival of the battle-weary Australians. He made numerous studies of the troops that he used as the basis for this large composition. The tired men wait with resignation to be transported to their next location. The feeling of overwhelming exhaustion is reflected in their heavy bodies and fixed gazes. Although massed together with other soldiers, each individual figure appears isolated, as if self-absorbed in the tragedy of the circumstances. Hele described the scene as follows: ‘in the background ... is Alexandria and the docks, with sheds etc. The immediate foreground is taken up with the men resting, standing about. On the left are the ambulances for the wounded. In the centre, or rather just behind the group sitting down, you can just see the walking wounded. Behind them again are the files of men circling around the trestle tables getting their mugs of tea, sandwiches etc and in the near background the trucks waiting to take them to Amarya [sic] and Palestine. For a picture like this, you must know, one had to take a certain licence, to include all the incidental details and I’m afraid that is where I've taken such a long time, in the initial composing of the picture.’ Ivor Hele to John Treloar, AWM file 206/002/006 Part II, 2 December 1942)

 

Source F

Painting by artist Stella Bowen, Bomber Crew, 1944  (1944, oil on canvas, Framed: 104 cm x 81 cm, AWM ART26265)

 

Caption:

Bomber crew is a group portrait of a Lancaster bomber crew representing the young Australians involved in the air war over Europe during the Second World War. In her capacity as an official war artist, Stella Bowen was stationed with the Royal Air Force at Binbrook, Lincolnshire, where No. 460 Squadron was based. This was the most highly decorated Australian squadron in Bomber Command, but had suffered the highest casualties. Bowen was commissioned to paint a typical crew that flew Lancaster bombers on the intense bombing raids over Germany and occupied Europe.

 

Source G

Hospital Hut, James French, c.1943-45 ( c.1943-45, work (pencil) on paper, 17.8 cm x 22.7 cm, AWM ART92689)

 

Caption:

 A Prisoner of War hospital camp that was established at Kanchanaburi when the Thai-Burma railway line construction had been completed. Men were brought back to these camps on stretchers off river barges or the railway. They suffered from diseases such as dysentry, malnutrition, beri beri, pellagra and all of them had malaria. In this work the man in the foreground is dabbing at a tropical ulcer on his leg.

On his return to Australia, French told a local newspaper reporter ‘that while in Japanese hands he was able to “scrounge” books on art and it was in studying these that he developed a love for art and resolved to further his studies as soon as he was released...and that while working on the Burma Railway he had kept a record of the frightful humiliation and cruelty of the Japanese.’ French went on to state that he did this at the request of Lieutenant Dillon who was the Commanding Officer of F Force.

 

Source H

Painting by artist Nora Heysen, WAAAF Cook, 1945 (1945, oil on canvas, 82.4 cm x 64.4 cm, AWM ART24394)

 

Caption:

Heysen’s portrait of Corporal Joan Beatrice Whipp, depicts her as an immovable tower of strength as she stands, arms folded, in her mess kitchen. Whipp was a cook from the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force. Whipp is preparing bully beef.

 

Source I

Extract discussing reviews of Second World War art in the 1940s, from Nola Anderson’s Australian War Memorial: Treasures from a century of collecting, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 2012, pp. 343-347

There had been calls for the commissioned work to be made available to the public, and finally, once funding had been secured, a selection of the official war art went on display in September 1943 at the National Art Gallery in Melbourne. The show included works by Harold Herbert, Ivor Hele, Frank Norton, William Dargie and Roy Hodgkinson, sculpture by Lyndon Dadswell, and a small number of works by William Dobell, who had been working as an official artist with the Allied Works Council. Melbourne Herald critic Clive Turnbull praised Dobell’s ‘feeling for life and the Australian spirit’ in paintings that were ‘at the same time factual and interpretative’, but he had reservations about the other works, which he felt showed ‘too much conventionality in technique and outlook’.

The Sun News Pictorial’s review followed a similar vein, believing the official war art on display avoided the tragedy of war: it concentrated too much on a factual or decorative representation and too little on the dramatic. Some critics suggested the artists had been directed to sanitise their work, although this had not been the case. Daryl Lindsay, the Melbourne gallery’s director, labelled the show a ‘fair success’. However, Hele’s work drew praise from the Argus, which singled out Tobruk, describing it as ‘one of the most compelling works exhibited’. Hodgkinson’s New Guinea work also drew praise as did those by Herbert and Murch.

The show drew criticism in Sydney when it was hung at the National Art Gallery in 1944. The artist and critic Howard Ashton felt it was limited in scope, and the Sydney Morning Herald remarked that ‘the horror of warfare has left no mark upon the work of these artists ...’