Showing 3 items matching Rememberance, themes: 'service and sacrifice'

Belinda Ensor
At the Going Down of the Sun

... to the commemoration of the war service of the thousands of Victorians who served between 1914 and 1918. Many of these men and women died in active service and were buried overseas, so locally built monuments served as important places to mourn and remember them ...

One hundred years on, evidence of the impact of the First World War can be plainly seen across Victoria.

Built heritage including cenotaphs, statues, plaques and obelisks are peppered across the state’s public spaces, each dedicated to the commemoration of the war service of the thousands of Victorians who served between 1914 and 1918.

Many of these men and women died in active service and were buried overseas, so locally built monuments served as important places to mourn and remember them. They were places for private and collective mourning, commemoration and remembrance.

These memorials were truly local, often built through community fundraising and supported by communities who shared a sense of loss. Most are inscribed with the names of those who died from the region, while others list the names of all those who served.

Across Victoria, cenotaphs and built memorials remain central to ANZAC Day services, but the way we commemorate has changed with each generation and so has the way we remember and mourn the servicemen of the First World War. Photographic and material culture collections from across the state, catalogued here on Victorian Collections, capture some of the tangible and intangible heritage associated with the shifting ways we commemorate the First World War. They provide meaningful insight in to our society and how we make sense of war and loss.
Lucinda Horrocks
The Missing

... The Shrine of Remembrance was built by the Victorian community as a place to remember those that lost their lives in the First World War.... Corps during the Second World War, Will works again with his brother as sub-contractor builders. Will's daughter, Norma, remembers him as a fun-loving man, often singing and whistling – Mademoiselle from Armentieres was a favourite. On the way home ...

When WW1 brought Australians face to face with mass death, a Red Cross Information Bureau and post-war graves workers laboured to help families grieve for the missing.

The unprecedented death toll of the First World War generated a burden of grief. Particularly disturbing was the vast number of dead who were “missing” - their bodies never found.

This film and series of photo essays explores two unsung humanitarian responses to the crisis of the missing of World War 1 – the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau and the post-war work of the Australian Graves Detachment and Graves Services. It tells of a remarkable group of men and women, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, who laboured to provide comfort and connection to grieving families in distant Australia.
Against the Odds: The victory over conscription in World War One

... jailed in Pentridge Prison in Coburg for refusing to join the army and fight in Vietnam. One hundred years later, the conscription referendums are still remembered in Brunswick and Coburg, through events such as performances of the street opera... to this vitriol having been fervently pro-conscription, and using its pages to attack Frank Anstey in particular. The Referendum Election Remarkably Quiet Day The referendum election of 28th October will certainly be remembered as the quietest and most orderly ...

In October 1916 and December 1917 two contentious referendums were held in Australia, asking whether the Commonwealth government should be given the power to conscript young men into military service and send them to war overseas.

These campaigns were momentous and their legacy long-lasting. This is the only time in history that citizens of a country have been asked their opinion about such a question, and the decisive 'No' vote that was returned remains the greatest success of the peace movement in Australia to date. Yet the campaigns split families, workplaces and organisations, and left an imprint on Australian politics that lasted for decades.

Many of the actors and events that were central to these campaigns were based in the northern Melbourne suburbs of Brunswick and Coburg. In many ways, these localities were a microcosm of the entire campaign. Against the Odds: The Victory Over Conscription in World War One tells the story of the anti-conscription movement in Australia during World War 1 through this lens.