Above: Allport and RE8. Reproduced with permission from the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians Below: Jack and Roland Brett’s names on the South face of the Mosman War Memorial.

An interview with Capt. J.M. Allport originally published in the 1969 Journal of the Australian Society of WWI Aero Historians, reproduced here with their permission.

Just because the war has ended doesn’t mean we have stopped collecting. The niece of Charles Lawrence ‘Laurie’ Pollard has very kindly donated his archives to the Mosman Local Studies Collection. Laurie drove ambulances and ammunition trucks in France during the First World War. This small collection is a wonderful assortment and includes his pay book, photographs he took and the maps he used on the battlefields. ‘Laurie’ was in the 3rd Australian Ammunition Sub-Park and perhaps this is a photograph of the unit?

For much of the First World War the small French village of Vignacourt was a sanctuary and a base for troops from nearby fighting. Thousands were billeted in houses or slept in the local barns, stables and lofts.

The surrounding fields were populated with training grounds and camps and so the soldiers’ evenings were often free to visit the cafes and the wine bars, a far cry from the battlefields that in reality were only 20 or 30 kms away.

When you start looking, you begin to find traces of the First World War everywhere in Mosman. For me, that was the most surprising and fascinating part of Doing our bit.