Inventing Anzac Day in England
Alfred Sharp
On the eve of the Great War, Alfred Sharp was appointed the Victorian Immigration Officer in London. He sailed off to ‘the old country’ in 1912. In England, Sharp advocated the… » read more
Marked secret
Samuel Mellor
Elizabeth Mellor first wrote to Melbourne Base Records in 1917. She had heard nothing from her son Samuel in years and feared ‘something must have happened to him’. She wondered… » read more
We were all so fond of him
Elsie Tranter
Armistice. After four years of carnage, the big guns at last fall silent. Elsie Tranter, an Australian nurse serving in a hospital near Amiens, finds a moment to scribble in her… » read more
Hearts broken for what?
Arthur Rae
When Australia marched to war in 1914, and the world plunged into madness, Arthur Rae, unionist, Labor leader, feminist and socialist pleaded for peace. He believed a new… » read more
The boy soldier
Bernard Haines
Bernard Haines was one of Australia’s boy soldiers. The papers tell us he was 14 when he enlisted, 15 when they sent him to France, 16 when he was gravely wounded at the Battle of… » read more
Captain Charlie’s boozer
Allen Charlie Kingston
Allen Charlie Kingston commanded the Australian War Graves Detachment at Villers-Bretonneux. A Gallipoli veteran, Kingston had seen four years of war and supervised the recovery… » read more
The angel of Durban
Ethel Campbell
Ethel Campbell was born in her mother’s homeland, Scotland, but raised in her father’s home, South Africa. He was a doctor, descended from a line of wealthy sugar planters and,… » read more
Quite a decent type of man
Cornelius Danswan
It was late in the morning when Dr Benjafield, a medical officer assigned to the Repatriation Department in Sydney, finished his examination of Cornelius Danswan. In many ways… » read more
No more to send
Caroline Gilbert
Caroline Gilbert was the mother of ten children. She sent three sons to war. And not one of them returned to her. Robert died of ‘multiple wounds’ in France. Both his legs were ‘… » read more
Whatever time they had left
Adam Wardrop
Adam Gladstone Wardrop was a horse driver from Mackay in Queensland. In 1916, he saddled up one last time, rode to Rockhampton and enlisted to serve in the Great War. Wardrop left… » read more
