All together, it took nine hours. Nine hours spent in the shuddering, claustrophobic hull of a WWI-era submarine. Cautiously travelling beneath an underwater minefield to then torpedo a battleship, only able to return to the safety of the open ocean via the same treacherous stretch of water. What type of person is capable of such […]
In this official Australian Imperial Force (AIF) postcard portrait made in 1916, Leslie Clouten, a 20-year-old fisherman from Lake Macquarie, looks proud and confident, still unscarred by the horrors of war. During battle in France in 1917, Leslie was shot in the abdomen. After recovering, he returned to the front, but was wounded again at […]
Issued by the hundreds of thousands, military medals can appear as cold, official relics of war. But these medals awarded to Corporal Harry Roland Paul Cradick (1884-1948), can be seen as symbols of three stages from his unique experience of World War I. When Harry enlisted at age 30, he lived with his family in […]
It was a solemn occasion in October 1916, when Morpeth farmer Alfred Peacock and his wife Charlotte stood in front of their fellow members of the Berry Park Progress Association, Morpeth. As a gesture of respect and affection, the committee presented them with this photographic portrait of their son Norman Peacock (1896-1916), expressing their regret […]
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