Discovering the heritage value of records at Queensland State Archives can be convoluted. This was the case when the State Library of Queensland Distant Lines exhibition prompted research into an esteemed military nurse who survived the First World War: Constance Mabel Keys. Born in Queensland in 1886, Sister Constance Mabel Keys became one of the […]
Born in St George, Sister Norma Violet Mowbray served as a staff nurse during the First World War with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) leaving from Brisbane with the No 1 Australian General Hospital on board HMAT A55 Kyarra on 21 December 1914. Sadly, she died from pneumonia in Cairo on 21 January 1916 […]
It’s strange what one stumbles across when diving into the archives. As we highlighted in a previous blog post, What to call the war, not everything is neatly labelled ‘war’, and one of the challenges facing QSA archivists, in particular when commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War, has been finding those items […]
In war, governments face the challenge of having to move large numbers of troops to the battlefield quickly and safely, usually under a shroud of national secrecy. And it was no different when Australian and New Zealand troops entered the First World War. In this post we consider the information available from our records that […]
In July 1915, Lallie Fowler Houston – mother of Francis (Frank) William Houston – wrote a letter of complaint to T J Ryan, the newly elected Premier of Queensland. Frank joined the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) soon after war was declared – on 21 August 1914. He was a sergeant with the 9th Battalion and […]
In August 1915, in the midst of the Gallipoli Campaign, the name ‘Dardanelles’ was used to advertise a new estate in an expanding Brisbane suburb. The Dardanelles is the name of the main sea lane through which troops were transported to the Gallipoli peninsula, Turkey in 1915 and 1916. Land in this estate in the […]
By Adrian Harrison, Department of Justice and Attorney-General, guest blogger Few people realise that the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (RBDM) holds comprehensive death registrations for a large number of service men and women¹ who enlisted in Queensland and died while on active duty during both world wars. Only the registries in South […]
The approaching Anzac Centenary has been the impetus for us to research the collection and identify interesting items for students, teachers, armchair historians and anyone interested in Queensland history. In this post we are looking at records that specifically refer to the early days of the Gallipoli campaign. The Dardanelles is the name of the […]
As well as the many great posts we have here on our First World War blog, we’ve also been commemorating the First World War in many other ways. Exhibition Our ‘Going to War’ exhibition is in our foyer exhibition space at QSA’s premises – 345 Compton Rd Runcorn. The first in a series of exhibitions, […]
Looking at all the food available in a supermarket today, it’s hard to believe that someone would thank the State of Queensland for sending them six hundred tins of boiled beef. But in February 1915 David Keep, the Town Clerk from the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green in London, wrote a letter of thanks to Hon. […]