Capital history in the news
ANZAC Day series, Australian War Memorial
The articles below are a series from the Australian War Memorial (AWM) that were published in newspapers in the lead up to Anzac Day. If you cannot access the newspapers articles many of them seem to appear in the AWM’s blog that you can find here.
Anzac Day 2020: Nurse 'general' Dame Maud McCarthy inspired as she led | Story of Dame Maud McCarthy (pictured above) who was one of the most highly decorated women of the First World War. She was the Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 1914 to 1919, and was Australian, born in 1859 in Paddington, Sydney.
Ted McMahon and music in the First World War | Story of Sergeant Edward McMahon whose playing of The Rosary on his cornet in the foothills of Gallipoli in August 1915 stalled the fighting and was applauded by nearby troops.
Anzac Day 2020: The fighting Fisher family's eight serving sons | Story of the Fisher family who had eight brothers enlist during the First World War. Edward, Walter, Eli, Terence, George, John Senior, Cecil and James joined the Australian Imperial Force, while a ninth son, Robert tried to enlist, several times, but was rejected due to his poor eyesight. Two out of the eight would not survive the war.
Art of family love and loss at war's end | Profiles artist Frances Vida Lahey who lived in London during World War I so she could provide her brothers and cousins with a home base while they served in the Australian Imperial Force. Years later she painted, Rejoicing and remembrance, Armistice Day, London, 1918, an artwork in the AWM’s collection, which reflected the conflict of celebrating the Armistice after so much sorrow.
Anzac Day 2020: Anzac contribution etched into French history | Account of how AWM historian Dr Lachlan Grant’s great-grandfather, John Erskine Francis Grant carved the memorial panels that are displayed at the Victoria School in Villers-Bretonneux.
ANZAC DAY: A secret letter that helped a daring prison escape | Story of John Mott who was captured at Bullecourt in April 1917 and became the first Australian officer to successfully escape from captivity in Germany during the First World War, travelling more than 130 kilometres through enemy territory to safety. The letter he wrote to his brother during his captivity, which included a hidden message, is part of the AWM’s collection.
The World War I art works of Will Dyson, Australia's first official war artist, are as powerful today as they were 100 years ago | Profiles Will Dyson, a well-known cartoonist, who in 1917 became Australia’s first official war artist. Highlights his influence on Charles Bean and the AWM’s foundation, and the tragedy of his wife’s death from the Spanish flu at the end of the war.
ANZAC Day: Napier Waller, the artist who inspired the Hall of Memory | Profiles artist Napier Waller who lost his right arm after being wounded in the fighting at Bullecourt in 1917 but continued his art becoming a noted Australian muralist, mosaicist and painter, responsible for the magnificent mosaics and stained glass in the Hall of Memory at the AWM. He is also remembered by the Napier Waller Art Prize.
Other ANZAC Day inspired news
From national icon to invasive weed | Tim the Yowie Man (TYM) writes about the iconic Lone Pine at the AWM and the little known fact that Aleppo Pines with no connection to the Lone Pine have become a weed in some states.
Horse tales from Duntroon | Another TYM article. In this one Tim writes about Richard Lamb’s findings that Royal Military College (RMC) journals from 1913 to 1968 show ‘horses was a central part of cadets’ lives for over three decades after the RMC commenced in 1911’. He also notes the RMC journals, digitised by Richard are a treasure trove of life in early Canberra that can be accessed here.
First Oscar ever won by an Australian part of National Film and Sound Archive's collection | National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) writes about the 1943 Australian newsreel called Kokoda Front Line produced by Cinesound Review, which shared the Academy Award for Best Documentary in a tie with three other war documentaries. The Oscar statuette is part of the NFSA’s collection having been donated by the film’s director Ken G Hall as a tribute to Damien Parer who shot the award-winning film and was killed in action in 1944.
One of Canberra's earliest World War II memorials was erected at Telopea Park School in 1953 | Esther Davies draws attention to one of Canberra’s earliest World War 11 memorials which was erected by Telopea Park School in 1953. It commemorates former students of the school who served in the war, including at least 43 students who died in the conflict. Esther notes that it may be time for the memorial to be better recognised as a part of Canberra’s heritage.
Anzac Day 2020: Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson marks first Anzac Day in in role | Profile of the new director of the AWM, Matt Anderson who explains he has had ‘A lifetime of association with the Australian War Memorial from a boy, to a soldier, to a diplomat, I’ve always known that this was Australia’s finest institution’.
Extended period for public comment on War Memorial expansion | The public will have four weeks to comment on the AWM’s expansion plans after they were advised their national significance justified an extended consultation period.
Other history news
The ACT's national parks came about due to careful planning, not happenstance | Matthew Higgins profiles the individuals and organisations that are responsible for the high-country national parks, stressing that these conservation areas did not just ‘happen’. Instead they were made by the insights, passions and persistence of many people over long periods of time.
Secrets and scandals where Malcolm Turnbull's memoir fit in the rich history of prime ministerial books | Joshua Black a PhD Candidate at the Australian National University writes about where former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s controversial memoir sits in relation to other political memoirs published in Australia.
Closed off from people, Canberra's galleries look for a human connection | The National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Australia explain how they are taking their collections on-line. This includes Amazing Face from the Portrait Gallery and virtual tours of exhibitions at the National Gallery.
96-year-old Dawn Waterhouse has lived through the Depression and World War II, but she says nothing quite compares to COVID-19 | 96-year-old Dawn Waterhouse’s recollections of other difficult times in our history and how they compare to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acknowledgement: The image above is a studio portrait of Dame Emma Maud McCarthy GBE RRC, Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 1914 to 1919 and one of the most highly decorated women of the First World War The image is out of copyright and comes from the Australian War Memorial’s collection.
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