We all wished everybody the best of luck in the New Year particularly those at home.

The above words were penned on 1 January 1915 by Captain Charles Albert Barnes in a letter that he had started to write to his mother on Christmas Day 1914. The letter was continually added to on a daily basis, along the lines of a diary, until the last addition on 17 January 1915. This letter has been digitised as part of the Memorial’s major centenary digitisation project, Anzac Connections, and is now available online here.

Extract from letter from Charles Albert Barnes to his mother, 25 December 1914 (1DRL/0091)

 

The above words were also selected as the first quote to feature in Daily Digger – a Memorial initiative to narrate the events of 1915 through the words of those who were there. To share some of these stories and personal insights into the days of the First World War, the Memorial is pleased to announce the launch of Daily Digger.

All of the collections that have been digitised as part of Anzac Connections contain thoughts and insights into the activities and experiences of Australian men and women who were on active service during the First World War. Sometimes, there is also extensive commentary on the situation back home in Australia.

Captain Walter Ormond Stevenson, 1st Divisional Train, Australian Army Service Corps (AASC), sits and writes a note or letter in his dugout at Anzac.

 

Reading through these letters to see what was happening each day for an individual as well as the wider collective experience reveals a rich narrative of a range of different experiences, personalities, language and the private thoughts of those who were putting pen to paper back in 1915.

Daily Digger will provide a featured quote selected from one of the diaries or letters digitised as part of Anzac Connections for every day of 1915. The quote will be uploaded to Twitter on the corresponding date in 2015 and can be viewed here.

 

In November 2014 the Australian Tapestry Workshop Director, Antonia Syme and Australian War Memorial Director, Dr Brendan Nelson announced the commencement of a significant new First World War commemorative tapestry commission based on a painting by Australian artist, Imants Tillers (b.1950) for the Australian War Memorial.

The tapestry, titled Avenue of Remembrance, has been commissioned by the Memorial and made possible through a generous donation from the Geoff and Helen Handbury Foundation.

Tillers was asked to provide a painting for the tapestry, a commemorative response to the First World War centenary which also makes reference to the Gallipoli letter. The Gallipoli letter is an 8000 word document, written by Keith Murdoch to Prime Minister Andrew Fisher in 1915, and is one of the National Library of Australia’s treasures.  It is widely thought to have helped bring the Gallipoli campaign to an end. View the Gallipoli letter.

Tillers' poetic landscape painting is reminiscent of the wartime roads on the Western Front and the many ‘avenues of remembrance’ planted in memorial to the First World War around Australia.  Layered over the top are words from the Gallipoli letter and a selection of names of the many places where Australians fought and were buried during the war.

‘We all know that an ‘avenue’ is not only a regular planting of trees along a road, it is also more abstractly ‘a way to access or approach’ something – to an idea or even a memory. My ‘Avenue of Remembrance’ is, I hope, a way or means to remember not only those young men who died but also the profound loss and grief experienced by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers and sisters. By their friends, by their communities. By our nation.’

Imants Tillers speaking about his work, Avenue of Remembrance

The tapestry took over 2380 hours to complete and was woven by Master Weavers Sue Batten, Chris Cochius, Pamela Joyce, Milena Paplinska and Cheryl Thornton. The completed tapestry is 3.3m by 2.8m. It was unveiled at the Memorial on 30 April 2015.

The new tapestry Avenue of Remembrance was available for public viewing during its production at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in South Melbourne from late October 2014 onwards.

• Introduction
• Australian Artists
• New Zealand Artists

The centenary of the First World War is a momentous international cultural, historical, and commemorative event. It resonates powerfully in Australia and New Zealand, where the war and the coming together of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) on Gallipoli in 1915 remain closely linked to contemporary national identity and the enduring bond between both countries. To mark the centenary the Australian War Memorial has commissioned the Anzac Centenary Print Portfolio, comprising contemporary artistic responses to the First World War by five Australian and five New Zealand artists.

The Australian and New Zealand experience of the First World War can never be fully comprehended by those who did not participate, so the aim of the Portfolio is not to try to represent the experiences of those men and women. Instead, the aim is to creatively explore the legacy of the First World War and the Centenary itself as a way of linking our past with our present and future.

The ten artists chosen to participate were: Daniel Boyd, Megan Cope, Helen Johnson, Mike Parr, and Sangeeta Sandrasegar from Australia; and Shane Cotton, Brett Graham, Fiona Jack, John Reynolds, and Sriwhana Spong from New Zealand. Each artist came to Canberra for an individual two-week residency between May 2014 and July 2015, working with master printmaker John Loane and the specialist staff at Megalo Print Studio and Gallery to produce their print. The artists worked in isolation from each other; the aim was never to produce a consistent or even cohesive account of this history, but to reflect a diversity of artistic perspectives and constitute a broad-ranging survey of creative responses.

A limited edition of 20 portfolios has been printed, 17 of which will be given to peer cultural institutions in Australia and around the world to promote international awareness of Australian and New Zealand artists and of our countries’ experiences of the First World War.

The edition presented to the Parliament House Art Collection will be on public display in the Presiding Officers’ Exhibition Area at Parliament House, Canberra from 17 March 2016 until 5 June 2016.

 

This is the current (2018) Simpson Prize question and source material. Previous years are available here.

The Question

Some historians have described 1917 as “the worst year of the Great War” for Australia and Australians. To what extent is this an accurate statement?

Instructions

The Simpson Prize requires you to respond to the question above using both the sources below and your own research.

You are encouraged to agree with, debate with, or challenge the statement from a variety of perspectives—individual, national and global—and to use sources in a variety of forms.

You are expected to make effective use of a minimum of three of the following sources. Up to half of your response should also make use of information drawn from your own knowledge and research.

Information about word or time limits, the closing date, entry forms and judging can be found at the Simpson Prize official website.

Note: students who submit winning entries for this year's Simpson Prize question will travel in 2018.

Source 1: Statistics

a) Graph showing rates of Australian enlistment 1914-1918

b) Table Showing Deaths in the A.I.F. Abroad

 

Year	From Battle Casualties	From Non-Battle Casualties	Total	Progressive Total
1914	-	14	14	14
1915	7,819	655	8,474	8,488
1916	12,823	873	13,696	22,184
1917	20,628	1,108	21,736	43,920
1918	12,553	1,687	14,240	58,160
1919	27	597	624	58,784
1920	-	6	6	58,790
Totals	53,850	4,940	58,790	58,790

 

 

 

Source 2: Letter

 

 

 

 

Postscript

Pte. Erle Neaves wrote the above letter while recovering in England from wounds. He returned to the front, and was killed in action on 6 November 1917 near Polygon Wood. He has no known grave. His brother was also killed in action. His mother in Australia died before the war ended.

Source 3: Film

Fighting in Flanders, Part I, Frank Hurley and Hubert Wilkins, 1917.

This film deals with the participation of the Australian troops in the third battle of Ypres during the autumn of 1917. The scenes include Australians preparing for the attack; being reviewed by Sir Douglas Haig before going in to action; shells falling amongst the ruins of Ypres, and then the battlefields over which Australians fought and incidents connected with the fighting.

Source 4: Photograph

Unknown Australian Official Photographer, Bapaume, 1917.

Source 5: Cartoon

Daryl Lindsay, Optimism, 1917.

Source 6: Painting

The Charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba, 1917, George Lambert, 1920.

Source 7: Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services

Extracts from A.G. Butler, ed., The Australian Army Medical Services in the War of 1914-1918, Australian War Memorial, Melbourne, vol. III, 1943.

Source 8: Leaflets

a) E.J. Dempsey, Claude Marquet & W.R. Winspear, The Blood Vote, 1917.

b) Fred P. Morris, A Mother’s Lament, 1917.

Copyright statement

For all copyright enquiries relating to the above sources write to:

Head, Research Centre
Australian War Memorial
GPO Box 345
Canberra ACT 2601
info@awm.gov.au

The war that shaped Australia

 

“My Dear Mother … I entered this war with the knowledge that I had a rather small chance of coming out of it alive. I was under no false impression – I knew I had to kill – and perhaps be killed. Since I commenced flying I have spent probably the happiest time of my life … Above all, Mother dear, I have proved to my satisfaction that I was, at least, a man.”

 

Twenty-year-old John “Jack” Yarra wrote this letter to be sent to his mother in the event of his death. He was killed six months later.

Australia’s attention is currently focused on the Centenary of the First World War, and one might be forgiven for assuming that Yarra was talking about the Great War. Certainly many of the young Australians who served and died in that terrible conflict expressed similar thoughts when they went off to war. But it was Yarra’s father who was a decorated Gallipoli and Western Front veteran. As for Jack Yarra, he was just one of the millions who perished in what became the most destructive war in human history – the Second World War.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. Sunday, 3 September 1939, was Fathers’ Day, but for most Australians the day was filled with anxiety and apprehension rather than celebration. Church congregations at morning services seemed larger than normal, and families gathered around radios waiting for what seemed like the inevitable. The Great War, fought between 1914 and 1918, was supposed to have been the war to end all wars, yet once again the world was on the brink of conflict.

At 9.15 pm Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies delivered an address to the nation: “It is my melancholy duty to inform you”, he began, that as a result of Germany’s invasion of Poland, “Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that as a result, Australia is at war.” It was never doubted that Australia would play an active role in the war to come.

While the causes for the outbreak of war in 1914 are still hotly debated, as recent discussions in Britain and Australia have shown, there is no ambiguity about the outbreak of the Second World War. Both Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the 1930s and were unwilling and unable to intervene militarily against their subsequent aggression. However, following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Britain and France, who had made Anglo–French guarantees to defend Poland, delivered an ultimatum to Hitler demanding the withdrawal of German forces. Germany had three days to comply; it did not. On 3 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany. About an hour later, Menzies delivered his announcement.

The war lasted six long years. It was a clash of ideologies. It was a conflict that the western Allies – principally the British Commonwealth and the United States – had to win to preserve democratic rights and personal freedoms. On the Eastern Front the war between Nazism and Communism became a struggle of near extermination. The Allies’ hard-fought defeat of Germany, Italy, and Japan came at a heavy cost. Parts of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific were devastated, tens of millions of people were displaced, and at least 60 million people died, including an estimated six million who perished as a result of the Holocaust.

Australia played its part in the Allied victory. From a population of just seven million, almost one million Australians – men and women – enlisted and more than half a million served overseas. They were posted across the world: from the deserts of North Africa to the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union; from the skies over occupied Europe to the jungles of Malaya and New Guinea.

Closer to home, the Japanese occupied Australian New Guinea, and the Australian mainland was bombed nearly 100 times during the course of the war. Northern Australia bore the brunt of this assault but the Japanese also attacked Sydney Harbour and Newcastle. Some Australians understandably feared a Japanese invasion.

The burden of Australia’s participation fell heavily on many families. All three sons of Alfred and Harriet Yarra’s six children enlisted. Their two eldest would be killed. Jack Yarra enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in late 1940. He trained in Canada and became a decorated Spitfire pilot. He flew in the defence of Malta before being posted to Britain. He was killed flying off the coast of Holland on 10 December 1942. Robert “Bob” Yarra also joined the RAAF. He was posted to Britain, joining his brother’s squadron, and on 14 April 1944 he was killed when his plane was shot down over France. The youngest Yarra son, James, volunteered for the army and fought on Borneo in 1945. The boys’ father, Alfred Yarra, enlisted in his second war, and served in the army.

Jack and Bob Yarra were two of the approximately 40,000 Australians killed during the Second World War. More than 30,000 Australians became prisoners of war.

On the home front the Australian government mobilised its population, economy, and industry for total war. Prime Minister John Curtin’s mantra became “All-in!” Rationing was introduced and the federal government enacted a series of unprecedented restrictions and controls over the daily lives of Australians.

It was also a time of great social change – most obviously for women. More than 66,000 enlisted and thousands more began working in factories and other traditionally male occupations. Many women gave up their positions when peace came in 1945 but fostered in their daughters the spirit of independence and equality that helped drive the women’s movements of the 1960s.

Indigenous Australians serving in uniform likewise began to experience a greater level of equality with white Australia. At least 3,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples served directly in the military and thousands of men were employed as labourers in northern Australia. This interaction, of course, was reciprocal; for the first time many white Australians were exposed to and developed an appreciation for Aboriginal customs and traditions.

 

Australia also saw a period of engineering and technical achievement. For a country that was yet to build a mass-produced motor car, Australia’s industry rapidly modernised and expanded during the war. The country manufactured aircraft, landing craft, and armoured vehicles, and this industrialisation helped form the basis for Australia’s economic prosperity in the years following 1945.

Australia came out of the Second World War confident and with an independent outlook. It enjoyed a more sophisticated relationship with Britain and found in the United States a new and powerful ally. The influx of postwar migration from Britain and war-torn Europe forever diversified Australia’s population and society.

Australia may have emerged from the Great War with a sense of national identity, but it was also a divided society and one in mourning. Australia experienced great losses in the First World War, too, but it was the Second World War that shaped modern Australia.

 

Karl James

Dr Karl James is a senior historian at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

This article was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 September 2014

Bridget
Genazzano College Melbourne
Aged 12

After visiting the Australian War Memorial with her year six class,  Bridget composed this poem:

Remembrance Day
'You ever realised what the ANZACS were willing to do?
They gave their lives for me and you.
You ever wonder it would be to see,
They died for you and me.
They had to live in blood and gore
They gave their lives to go to war.
You ever realise what they did
They gave their lives for us to live.
You ever feel bad when you’re alone
How ‘bout being a million miles
away from home?
Having to fight faithfully, hour after hour
inside their hearts were trembling outisde their muscle power.
They gave their lives for you and me,
They sacrificed themselves don’t you see?"

---

Central Coast Steiner School
New South Wales
Year 9

The Australia in the First World War Memorial Box has been used by Year 9 students at Central Coast Steiner School as part of an empathy task.  Students chose an item from the box to use as a stimulus in order to produce a poem, narrative or visual representation.  Their teacher commented that using the items from the Memorial Box was powerful for the students and she was delighted by the quality of the stories and poems that the students produced.  Here are two examples, Humanity by Lachlan and Death by Emma.  Congratulations students!   Here are the links:

Schools frequently borrow Memorial Boxes from the Australian War Memorial. See more information about our education outreach program. 

---

Lachlan
New South Wales
Aged 9

In his speech Lachlan explores Sir John Monash’s contribution during the First World War, in particular his role in the Battle of Hamel. Lachlan also shares insights from his great great grandfather’s war diary during his time in Gallipoli and France.

---

William
South Australia
Year 9

William recently submitted an entry in to the 2018 Premier’s Anzac Spirit School Prize competition. He researched an Australian serviceman who played a significant role on Armistice Day. William used various sources including photographs and enlistment documents as part of his research. Thank you for sharing the story of Private ‘Tiny’ Toop with us.

---

Truganina College
Truganina, Victoria

Students at Truganina College learned about the significance of Remembrance Day this week and contributed to a display. Every student in the school from Foundation to Year 8 was involved.

---

Luke W
Year 9

Luke made this model of a Sopwith Camel as flown by the Australian Flying Corps during the First World War. The model, and accompanying research, were submitted for Luke's Year 9 History assignment.

Australian Air League
Padstow Squadron

Members of Padstow Squadron, Australian Air League, produced this fantastic education display for the League's 2016 NSW Group Review. The theme this year was 'Australian Aviation in the Great War'. Cadets from 8 years and up made replicas of First World War aircraft, researching information and completing the display.

Marrara Christian College, NT
Year 9

After completing the unit of study, students submitted to the Memorial their reflections on the First World War.

To Sir/Madam,
I am a year nine student at Marrara Christian College. We have been studying World War One this term and I will be telling you about what WW1 means to me. Although I had learnt about Anzac Day before, I understand what had happened better, I see Anzac Day differently now... read more

St. Luke's Catholic Parish School
Year 3

Year 3 students at St. Luke's have been doing presentations, building a classroom exhibit, baking Anzac biscuits, and writing letters from Gallipoli. Well done Year 3.

Catherine
Aged 9

The Daughter's Father in War

I am a daughter with a father in war.
He walked off;
I waved goodbye.
In the house there was silence.
Everyone was hoping we were going to see them again.

Continue reading...

Alyce
Aged 13

My boys are at war

In a little white house in Watervale
Balbina a widow Mother began to wail
As her six boys were going to war
All her boys had enlisted to join the Army Corp
My boys have gone off to war
Leaving behind our Aussie Shore
I do hope my boys will return home soon
To tell us of their war stories in our family room

Continue reading...

James
Aged 11

Lest we forget

"The time has come" an Australian said,
"Bye" as he faced the door and ran ahead.
The war has started the battle begun,
Smack,boom,crash went the lethal gun.
Oww, the pain, other soldiers cried,
Most of their friends sadly died.
All the solders tried to laugh in glee,
But they all missed their family.

Continue reading...

Chloe
Aged 13

Maybe

A soldier stands, proud and stiff,
in the centre of our town,
With a rifle, never to fire again,
with its barrel pointing to the ground
Through, rain, hail, shine and wind,
he reminds us as time passes by
That life doesn't always go your way,
it's just a beautiful lie.

Continue reading...

Holy Cross Primary School, Kincumber

The night before the landing at Gallipoli

I peer through the darkness towards the shore's outline and it feels like it is thirstily staring back at me, daring me with its evil eye to set foot on its beach. The idea of dying brings a sharp pang to my gut and makes me feel uneasy. I huddle to the side of the boat and I can't keep my family from crossing my mind, that it may have been my last goodbye. Continue reading...

Corowa High School

Many thanks to Corowa High School for posting this film they made for the local Anzac Day dawn service in 2015, to mark the centenary.

 

Stella
Aged 10

Lone Pine

A mother's love for her son
A seed
Planted in the Australian soil
Drank tears of her loss
And grew.
We as a nation
Tend the tree
Like a new born
Feed with it Remembrance
Water it with Honour
And watch over it with pride
And never forget.

Harry
Year 6

Gallipoli Haiku

Gallipoli, friend
The soldiers fought for us then
Remember proudly
As men fell, death took
Those who died for us bravely
Do not forget them
Gunfire, blood, smoke
Deafening soldier's ear drums
Screams, screams, everywhere

Continue reading...

Chloe
Aged 12

A True Anzac

T'was the 25th of April dawn about to break,
We had our rifles ready, oh how our shoulders ached.

I remember my mates silent, no-one dared to say a word,
We thought we saw some movement, but all our minds were blurred.

Some boots hit the sand, but some just sank straight down,
All I saw was a cliff face and a sea of khaki and brown.

Jess
Aged 13

13 year old Jess Love painted this artwork to represent the experiences of her family in wartime. Titled A Child's Sacrifice, the painting shows her father, Shaun, in the foreground. The image is based on a photograph taken while he was serving in Western Sahara. Shaun also served in East Timor, Iraq and Sinai. The silhouette is Jess' great grand-father, Ernest Gibson, who served during the Second World War.

Mullumbimby Public School & St John's Catholic School

Students from these schools participating in the opening of Re-Membering Our ANZACS exhibition by Deborah Gower at Ex-Services Club Mullumbimby on 11 November 2014. The display shows a number of wooden crosses with hand-written messages. These crosses are part of one of the AWM's First World War Centenary projects, which commemorates those who served and died during the First World War. Photos: Paul Schneider Photographics.

Bunbury Cathedral Grammar, New England Girls School, Oakburn College, The Armidale School, Trinity Anglican School & Vivek High School

A group of 46 students and staff from these schools visited the Gallipoli Peninsula in October 2014. All these schools belong to the international network of schools known as Round Square. The students researched the campaign before their visit and participated in a ceremony at the Lone Pine Memorial, where they lay their commemorative crosses.

Photos: Grant Harris, recently retired Deputy Headmaster of The Armidale School.

Sunny
Year 5

Gallipoli 1915-1916

On that dark and gloomy April night,
Away from our beloved hometown,
We loaded our guns – ready to fight,
Frozen with fear as we squatted down,

In the feared filled trench,
The blood of soldiers lost in the war,
Down low you could smell the stench,
Dead soldiers seek the white door.

Far back they sealed the fates of us all,
With each doomsday shell,
The ones were lucky that didn't fall,
No man could escape such hell.

Morrison
Aged 14

The Young Aussie Diggers

The young Aussie boy
No more than seventeen
Split up into groups of six
Of blokes he'd never seen

One said "How's it going mate
You seem a bit too young!
You don't look that much older
Than a man of 21!"

He then said, "Pleased to meet you, I'm Martsson
But you can call me 'Mart'
Just as they had started talking
The boat was to depart

Continue reading...

Henri
Balmain Public School, Aged 11

The Unsung Hero

Mary-Anne Taylor, her mother and her brother and sisters were standing in the hot sun watching the parade go past. It was the spring of 1914 and war had broken out three months ago. Her father came to Australia to work in the goldfields but unfortunately made no money to go home. After years' worth of savings, he finally got enough money to take a trip to England. When the war started Mary-Anne's father was in England visiting his sick mother, so he joined up to fight for the British Empire. He was fighting on the Western Front against the Germans.

Continue reading...

Sara
Belconnen High School

Mirrored Memoirs

A sea of brown flows limitless –
Dry grass clumps and rutted earth.
The Germans stand in coalesce
Prepared to fight for all they're worth.

Much horror soon is yet to come,
Inferno's close, its breath grows raucous.
Silence – not a murmured hum,
The pending soldiers, greatly cautious.

The lines of men that stand prepared,
Are shielded by their masks of heft.
Their frail bodies – under – cared,
Are all the hope that they have left.

Continue reading...

Ryan
St. Joseph's Regional High School

Ryan wrote and delivered this address for his school's Remembrance Day speech evening.

Year 6 students
Trinity College, Albury-Wodonga

Dear Sir/Madam,

On behalf of Year 6 students at Trinity College, we would like to thank you for touring us and showing us around the War Memorial. We really enjoyed the statues, the movie and the stuffed horse, all these things had stories about war heroes.

We remember when we saw all the huge aircraft and we saw the light show, the gift shop was full of interesting things.

We had great fun doing all the activities and looking at all the old features and we could touch so many different things such as hard tack and all different relics.

Kind Regards,
Vicke, Ava, and Danielle, Year 6 students
Trinity College.

Bernard
Aged 10

Fiona
Hughes, ACT - Aged 10

Fiona sent in this card for Anzac Day 2014.

Years 5/6 students
Hale School, Wembley Downs, WA

Middle School students from Hale researched an Old Haleian who was lost in a theatre of war and whose name appears on the Memorial's Roll of Honour. These posters summarise their findings.

Vanessa
Aged 14

The Unseen Murderer

The sky cries, all day it has cried
The cold sodden hearts and muddy earth are untouched
For not one but many have just died
And no goal has been reached.

Their precious lives lost, a generation wasted
Carried away by the wind and mustard gas
Erased from the earth by shells and false hatred
Their world razed while they watch in a trench pass.

Eating, sleeping and walking in their graves
Their Generals commanding kilometres away
Fighting against reason and living worse than slaves
Families praying the telegram never reaches their doorways.

The sky shrieks for the tortured men and cries
For one stone pillar cannot replace the millions of stolen lives.

Alexandra
Aged 9
Young Public School

Our Brave Young Men

Our brave young men went off to war
The Australian New Zealand Army Corps
Young and scared they stood their ground
Bullets and bombs flying all around

In Flanders field the soldiers bled
staining the ground an awful red
After the battle the poppies grew
In honour of our Anzac crew

On Anzac day we gather a crowd
remembering heroes our nation proud
They sacrificed and lives were lost
Their loved ones paid a heavy cost

Our brave young Diggers answered the call
Risking their lives for us all
Our brave young men went off to war
The Australian New Zealand Army Corps.

Briarna Allen
Age 9

Briarna has drawn this charcoal sketch of an Anzac soldier in Flanders Field.

Notice
The Australian War Memorial does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within these examples of students' work, which remain the intellectual property of their respective authors.

The small French village of Vignacourt was always behind the front lines. For much of the First World War it was a staging point, casualty clearing station and recreation area for troops of all nationalities moving up to and then back from the battlefields on the Somme. Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt  tells the story of how one enterprising photographer took the opportunity of this passing traffic to establish a business taking portrait photographs.

Captured on glass, printed into postcards and posted home, the photographs made by the Thuillier family enabled Australian soldiers to maintain a fragile link with loved ones in Australia. The Thuillier collection covers many of the significant aspects of Australian involvement on the Western Front, from military life to the friendships and bonds formed between the soldiers and civilians.

The exhibition showcases a selection of the photographs as handmade traditional darkroom prints and draws on the Memorial's own collections to tell the story of these men in their own voices.

Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt collection

If you would like to ask a question about any of the images in Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt, please read our Frequently Asked Questions. If you think you have identified a relative in one of the photographs in the Vignacourt collection, please contact our curators at photofilmsound@awm.gov.au.

Tour dates

Completed Dates
Queensland Museum	April - July 2014
State Library of SA	Aug - Oct 2014
State Library of NSW	Nov 2014 - Jan 2015
Western Australian Museum, Perth	June - Aug 2015
Western Australian Museum, Albany	Sept - Nov 2015
Western Australian Museum, Kalgoorlie	Dec 2015 - Feb 2016
Western Australian Museum, Geralton	Feb - May 2016
Glasshouse Gallery	Dec 2016 - Feb 2017
Pinnacles Gallery	Feb - April 2017
Hamilton Art Gallery	Jul - Sep 2017
Warwick Art Gallery	Jan - Feb 2018
Murray Bridge Gallery	Mar - Apr 2018
Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery	May - Jul 2018
Cowra Regional Art Gallery	July - Sept 2018
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery	Sept - Nov 2018

Courtesy Kerry Stokes collection, the Louis and Antoinette Thuillier Collection

Proudly brought to you by Seven Network

The Louis and Antoinette Thuillier Collection contains almost 4,000 glass-plate negatives depicting British, French, Australian, US, and Indian soldiers, Chinese labour corps, and French civilians. More than 800 of these glass-plate negatives featuring Australians were generously donated to the Memorial by Mr Kerry Stokes AC in August 2012. You can view all the Thuillier images donated to the Memorial on these webpages.

The Australian War Memorial’s exhibition Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt showcases 74 photographs specially hand-printed in the Memorial’s darkrooms from the original glass-plate negatives. You can see more images from The Louis and Antoinette Thuillier Collection on Seven Network’s Lost Diggers Facebook page.

The glass-plate negatives from Vignacourt are significant because they offer insights into the reality of life on the Western Front. There are photos that show the laughter and the mateship among these soldiers, and the general feeling of life away from the line. Like any true portrait, many offer an insight into the character and mood of the subject. None of the soldiers in this post have been identified, but photographs created so close to the battlefields of the Somme means portrait subjects who have witnessed true horrors.

 

 

 

Far from the formal portraits taken at studios back in Australia, the expressions in many of these images tell a story very different to the optimism of life at home.  Features such as misshapen slouch hats and frayed colour patches suggest that these are men who have truly been ‘in the thick of it’. Other features such as the position of some of their hands together with a particular facial expression hint at war wounds that are beyond the physical.

 

 

 Now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the symptoms of ‘shell shock’, the term that emerged during the First World War to refer to the human reaction to trauma, would manifest in different ways. One was the expression on a soldier’s face, described as vacant and doleful. In later conflicts the term ‘Thousand Yard Stare’ emerged to describe this expression, and has come to be understood as the mind’s dissociation from traumatic events.

 

 

 

Sergeant Edgar Rule of the 14th Battalion provided a description of this condition on page 599 of Volume III of the Official History. He had seen the men of the 1st Division pass him on the road after they had been relieved at Pozieres:

‘Those who saw them will never forget it as long as they live. They looked like men who had been in Hell. Almost without exception each man looked drawn and haggard, and so dazed that they appeared to be walking in a dream, and their eyes looked glassy and starey.’

 

 

 

Vignacourt’s proximity to the fighting on the Somme gives this collection of images an honesty that many other photographs don’t possess, and it is this honesty that makes them significant. There are no polished studio portraits here, and no omissions courtesy of the censor’s pen. When viewing the faces of many of these men we can only imagine the horrors that they have witnessed and endured.

Many people have already looked at this collection of photographs on our website.

Look again.

You will always notice something you haven’t noticed before:

/visit/exhibitions/remember-me

 

 

Half a world away Australians are serving their country by building another. The war in Afghanistan and operations in the Middle East have engaged thousands of Australian men and women, both military and civilian, for over a decade.

They have built schools, roads, and hospitals. They have mentored the fledgling army of a new, democratic nation. They have engaged in fierce fighting and have demonstrated bravery and dedication beyond compare.

On 11 September 2001, Australians felt outrage at al Qaeda’s attack on the United States. A year later, the devastating Bali bombings in Indonesia again brought home the threat of global terrorism. Some of those who planned the bombings had trained in Afghanistan. Australians were killed in both attacks.

Australia joined the United States and its allies across the world to take a stand against this threat. Afghanistan, a land contested by armies for centuries, became the focus of international efforts to contain terrorism.

The mission has evolved over the past decade in what is called the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO). From counter-insurgency, through reconstruction, to mentoring, Australians have been working to create a democratic and stable Afghan nation. This mission aims to assist the people of Afghanistan, but also to promote the security of the region, diminish the influence of terrorist groups, and create a safer global environment.

A world away

Afghanistan and the Middle East are now indelibly linked to Australia’s national story.

Australia’s mission is clear: to combat international terrorism, to help stabilise Afghanistan, and to support Australia’s international alliances. Yet a mission statement cannot capture the challenges, the successes, and the comradeship of the Australian men and women who pursue it. Nor the joys and heartbreaks, or the loneliness and the dedication of those who wait at home.

Some of these experiences, set against the powerful imagery of a modern war, are told in this exhibition. Over time, the display will change and evolve as more veterans share their stories.

A view of the exhibition

 

Opening speech

The opening speech at the exhibition launch, given by General David Hurley AC DSC, Chief of the Defence Force, on 6 August 2013.

Afghanistan Last Post Ceremony

 

Donating items

Interested in donating to the collection? Please contact us.

This exhibition is proudly supported by Boeing.