Information on Robert Smith drawn from Series J34, Robert Smith, NAA and Smith, PR88/058, AWM.
Coulthard-Clark argues that Birdie’s irritation toward Legge’s Australianist outlook, rather than failings in his exercise of command, were behind his decision to send him back to Australia. See No Australian Need Apply, p. xi.
Andrews, The Anzac Illusion, p. 99.
Coulthard-Clark, No Australian Need Apply, pp. 160, 205.
Legge in a letter to Bean dated 9 January 1928. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM, p. 103.
Coulthard-Clark, No Australian Need Apply, p. 209, 211.
Hooky Walker’s note to Bean dated 13 August 1928. Quoted in Sheffield and Todman, ‘An Army Commander on the Somme’, in Command and Control on the Western Front, p. 71. Subsequent quotation ibid., p. 75.
Gough, The Fifth Army, p. 143.
Winter, Haig’s Command, p. 265.
Derham, The Silent Ruse, p. 74.
Stone, 1932, p. 17.
Wiest, Haig, p. 113.
Cook, ‘In the Realm of the Senseless’, The Bulletin, November 2006, p. 42.
Viewpoint contained in Douglas Haig’s final despatch on 21 March 1919. See Sheffield and Bourne, Douglas Haig, appendix 4.
Firkins, The Australians in Nine Wars, p. 94.
Hudson, Billy Hughes in Paris, p. 20.
Chapter 19: The Missing
Adam-Smith, Australian Women at War, pp. 73–74.
Scates and Francis, Women and the Great War, p. 104.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, p. 337.
Drosen, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
ibid. and Series B2455, Private George Droser [sic], NAA.
Interview with Colin Drosen, 16 August 2010.
Captain Theodore Wells’s letter of condolence written to Hester Allen on 1 March 1917, at www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/memorial_scroll/letter5.asp. Subsequent quotation ibid.
1DRL/0428 Private Stephen Charles Allen and Allen, 1DRL/0428, both AWM.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 1917, p. 6 and 14 August 1919, p. 8.
Series B2455, Philip Gerald Browne, NAA. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Browne, 2DRL/0619, AWM.
The Brisbane Courier, 28 November 1916, p. 8.
Series B2455, Philip Gerald Browne, NAA. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Quoted in Winn, Still Playing the Game, pp. 8, 196.
The Brisbane Courier, 21 July 1917, p. 4.
Series B2455, Philip Browne, NAA. Subsequent quotation ibid.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 1921, p. 9.
Rule, Jacka’s Mob, 1933, p. 338. Subsequent quotation ibid.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 November 1937, p. 13.
Series B2455, James Connelly, NAA.
The Argus, 28 October 1937, p. 1 and The Canberra Times, 27 October 1937, p. 3.
Series B2455, John Thomas Rowan, NAA.
The Argus, 29 January 1938, p. 4.
Inglis, Sacred Places, p. 485.
Quoted in Keech, Pozières, p. 118.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 1920, p. 12.
‘Address in Memory of Australian Dead’, Bishop of Amiens in the Church of Long, Somme, 4 Nov 1918, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
Quoted in Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning, p. 50. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Series B2455, Percy Blythe, NAA.
Blair, Dinkum Diggers, p. 177.
Gorman, With the Twenty-second, p. 33.
Joynt, Breaking the Road for the Rest, p. 194.
Raws, ‘Records of an Australian Lieutenant’, p. 9.
Inglis, Anzac Remembered, p. 163.
The Argus, 3 May 1915, p. 6.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1917, p. 6. Subsequent verses ibid., pp. 5, 6.
The Brisbane Courier, 23 July 1921, p. 6.
Lee’s story from Series B2455, Ernest Victor Lee aka Ernest John Jefferies, NAA.
Every Week, 19 May 1919, p. 1.
The Herald, 3 June 1919, p. 12.
Every Week, 19 May 1919, p. 1. Subsequent quotation ibid.
Winter, Making the Legend, pp. 14, 18.
Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
The Brisbane Courier, 17 September 1927, p. 12.
White in a letter to Bean dated 19 September 1927. Quoted in Winter, Making the Legend, 1992, p. 157.
Short in a letter to Bean dated 19 July 1928. See Bean, 38-3DRL/606/244/1, AWM.
Winter, Making the Legend, p. 1.
Quoted in McCarthy, Gallipoli to the Somme, p. 388.
McCarthy, Gallipoli to the Somme, p. 387.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 1952, p. 6.
The Argus, September 1917, p. 7.
For Caux’s biography, see Silver, Marcel Caux.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 November 1927, p. 8.
The Age, 22 April 2006, pp. 1, 9.
Sheffield, The Somme, 2004, p. 164.
Tynan, 1DRL/0428, AWM.
Edey, MS 10511, SLV.
Acknowledgements
My principal debt is to two individuals who said yes — Lyn Tranter of Australian Literary Management and Henry Rosenbloom of Scribe Publications. It would have perhaps been safer for both to say no to a first-time Australian author; instead, they took a punt and backed me unwaveringly. I hope their approach encourages all unpublished authors to persevere.
I am forever indebted to my partner, Alex, and daughters, Isabella and Amelia, for their patience, particularly as this project lasted longer than the Great War and resulted in me being office-bound for most sunny weekends. I promise you that our next family holiday will be somewhere other than northern France.
In researching Pozières, I have relied heavily on the following institutions: Australian War Memorial, Imperial War Museum, National Archives of Australia, National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, and State Library of New South Wales. I am staggered by the number and diversity of records retained by these institutions and the unfettered access that researchers such as myself have to them. Many recently digitised records — personnel dossiers at the National Archives of Australia; Charles Bean’s diaries and notebooks, unit diaries, official histories, and soldiers’ records at the Australian War Memorial; and copies of Australian newspapers at the National Library of Australia — have been critical to this project. They have allowed me to complete large swathes of research on the internet rather than repeatedly visiting each site to view the original records, which is challenging when juggling other priorities, such as work and family. I firmly believe that the digitisation of records at sites such as the Australian War Memorial is an important step toward the democratisation of our history.
Behind each great institution is a team of dedicated professionals, who always surprised me with their willingness to assist in this project: Penny Hyde and David McGill of the Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial; Simeon Barlow, Cheryl McNamara, and Fiona Burn of the National Archives of Australia; and Ranald Leask of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archivists Denise Miller, of Toowoomba Grammar School, and Welwyn Peterson, of Sydney Church of England Grammar School, also provided invaluable assistance.
Thank you to Paul Matton, James Bennett, Roger Coupe, and Robert Hadler for providing feedback and encouragement on a raw manuscript; Tom Flood of Flood Manuscripts for his incisive reviews; and Dr Peter Stanley, who, with a generosity rarely encountered among others, reviewed the entire manuscript and provided critical feedback and ongoing encouragement throughout the project.
Finally, a big thank you to the Scribe team who guided me — initially Nicola Redhouse, who helped to articulate what the book was about a
nd then worked patiently through the early chapters; and later Julia Carlomagno, for her encouragement, thoughtful editing, and commitment to telling the soldiers’ story. I feel privileged to have worked with you both.
And to those men who left Australia’s shores almost 100 years ago, who fought, died, and were buried in unmarked graves on the Somme — I hope this book imparts later generations with an understanding of your lives, motivations, and hopes.
Pozieres Page 42
