When Norman Victor Reid went to join the AIF at Sydney on 11 February 1915 he was still 11 months short of the minimum age for enlistment (19). So, he took with him a letter from his father giving him permission to join the Army Medical Corps and go to the front. Norman was accepted […]
‘This’ll be over by Christmas’ became more difficult to believe each year that passed during World War I. Australian soldiers, some who had served since the beginning of the war, had spent Christmas days in camps and trenches far from home. In 1918, an article in a Sydney newspaper reported some words given by a […]
Leslie Clouten was recovering from his wounds on 28 September 1917 when he wrote a letter to his parents on the back of this folding souvenir postcard booklet. While serving at the front in France in June, Leslie had been injured by a gunshot wound in the abdomen, and was removed to England, suffering continual […]
In November 1916, as the troopship HMAT Borda approached Cape Town, Private Leslie Clouten and his mates on board were surely impressed by the scenery – the city at the southern tip of Africa nestled between the shore and Table Mountain, rising behind. His ship had already called at Durban a few days earlier, and […]
In 1925 William and Jane Clouten of Tacoma added the final letter to this pile of correspondence they had been collecting. Creased where they had been folded for dispatch, the documents’ worn edges and dog-eared corners suggest they may have opened and read many times. Each document was a terrible reminder of the loss of […]
We take pictures to remember, freezing a moment forever, afraid a memory will be lost. Our smartphones have made the act of taking a photo something we do almost without thinking. It is now so easy to snap a portrait of a friend, that around the world some 54,400 images are snapped every second. It […]
There’s a marble stone plaque on Morpeth’s war memorial statue that reads, ‘For King & Country’. Listed there are the names of the local ANZAC soldiers who served in World War One. Third on that list is Lieutenant H. Maynard MM, and below, on another plaque is a commitment, ‘Lest We Forget’. This is a […]
Museums & Galleries of NSW acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands that comprise the state now known as NSW.
We pay respect to them as First Nations people with a continuing connection to land, place, waters and community
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this site contains stories, images, voices, and video of people who have died.
Some material may contain terms that reflect common usage of the period in which it was written or recorded but may not be considered appropriate today. Such terms do not reflect the views of Museums and Galleries of NSW and are provided only to reflect historical context.