Volunteers queuing to enlist outside Victoria Barracks, Sydney. AWM A03406

We need volunteers to link names on local memorials to official records, photographs, newspaper mentions and other online sources.

Here is a suggested step-by-step prepared for our workshop for volunteers on 8 March.

In November last year, David Wilson spoke at Mosman Library about the Fighting Nineteenth. These are the slides from his presentation.

Who took the candid photos we see today? Were they official photographers? Bill Frost takes a look at photography at the front.

Booklet – Red Cross Society, Goods Needed for War Effort, Australian Branch, World War I, circa 1914. Source: Museum Victoria

The Australian Red Cross established in 1914, as a branch of the British Red Cross, just nine days after the outbreak of war, celebrates its centenary this year.

Those who could not enlist volunteered their time and skills to the Australian Red Cross cause. These included many Mosman residents, such as Sir William Cullen and his wife, Eliza, and author, Ethel Turner.

Louise Mack donated the proceeds from the sale of her book A Woman’s Experiences in the Great War to the Red Cross and spent the rest of the war years touring the country to maintain awareness of the work of the Red Cross, which included listing missing and wounded soldiers.

Trooper Bluegum’s verse was published as Poems and Picture: for the Red Cross Society as a way of raising money for the Society’s important work.

Ellen Leahy, aunt of Sid and Dalton “Jack” Carroll, was foundation President of the Mosman Red Cross and was awarded the MBE for her work. Mary Lou has written of the concert parties hosted by the Mosman Red Cross to raise funds.

Trove newspapers: Mosman Red Cross

Portrait of Lieutenant (later Major) Oliver Hogue, 2nd Light Horse Brigade, later of the 14th Light Horse Brigade. Source: AWM A05426

As I have come to expect, our Great War project continues to make connections cementing bits and pieces of local stories gathered over the years.