This blog post is part of a series of essays commissioned by Queensland State Archives and written by historian Dr Judith McKay. The number of men enlisting for active service at the outbreak of the First World War was high. However, by late 1915, as casualties rose and enlistments fell, the AIF faced a shortage of […]
What to call the war
The first hurdle when searching for records relating to the First World War, or The Great War, is what to call it. Our records containing First World War information were created during or shortly after the war of 1914–1918. Recordkeepers of the day simply used the term their department was using when they registered, bundled […]
‘Keep the fires of enthusiasm burning’: Recruitment and enlistment in Queensland during the First World War
The recruitment of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the First World War has been called ‘the greatest effort that Australia ever made as a nation’ (Robson, 1970). Approximately 417,000 Australians enlisted voluntarily between 1914 and 1918, of which more than 57,700 were Queenslanders. This figure constituted about 40 per cent of all men aged […]