Oodnadatta children and a local lady at a fund-raising
afternoon tea organised by the girls, 1914
SLSA: Oodnadatta Collection B 50505
‘Harry Stopp (8 years 4 months) who by his Singing at
Recent Australia Day Entertainments has Collected
£7 4s for Australian Wounded Soldiers’ Fund’, 1916
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 110
‘Red Cross Helpers’, Inman Valley School
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 110
‘“Young Australia”. Luna South, of the Auburn Primary
School, collected £15 for the wounded soldiers on
Australia Day’, 1916
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111
‘The Handy Men Behind the Gun’. Paskeville School, 1915
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111
‘Greenock School Concert – Red Cross Tableau’. 1917
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111
‘Young cadets’. Unknown school, 1914
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 105
Children in a patriotic parade with
a goat cart ‘ambulance’, Kadina, c 1916
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/39/58
Local residents, including lines of children at the rear,
walking in a patriotic procession at Bute, 1915
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/23/293
‘Juvenile Nurses’, Campbelltown patriotic carnival
in aid of the Soldiers’ and Red Cross funds, 1917
SLSA: PRG 733/6
North Adelaide School drum and fife band students
in a procession to the Prospect Oval for a carnival in aid
of the Australian Soldiers’ Repatriation Fund, 1916
SLSA: PRG 733/85
Girls dressed as nurses collecting money during
a patriotic procession, 1917
SLSA: PRG 733/333
Patriotic procession along King William St led by students
from the Prince Alfred College band
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/816
‘Red cross’ formed by children on the Adelaide Oval
during a Red Cross Society fund-raising display, 1918
Searcy Collection: PRG 280/1/18/37
Children, teachers and onlookers at Kyre College (later
Scotch College) with their tins of money collected, c
1917
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/951
SA poster encouraging war loans. School children
were encouraged to promote peace bonds to adults,
as well as ‘keep their own pledge’ if at all possible
AWM: ARTV00784
War loan ‘tank’ in Kapunda escorted through the
town by Kapunda School children and teacher
Searcy Collection: PRG 280/1/17/384
‘Leaving Adelaide’, 17 February 1917. School children
and teachers often swelled crowds at farewells
AWM: P05182.103
What were some of the
consequences of the Great War for
daily life in schools?
SA teachers’ daily journals
Thiele, pp 122-23
‘The frustration, humour, pathos, tragedy and trivia of
the classroom and of the world that encircled it …
Fund-raising, firewood, and handkerchiefs for soldiers;
flag-flying, leaking tanks, patriotism and the dark threat
of diphtheria; disinfectants, diarrhoea, garden seeds
and a shortage of chalk; fetes, Queen Competitions,
and War Office telegrams touched with death – these
and a thousand other entries went down in blue-black
ink with steel-nib pens, written hastily or carefully
according to the pressures of the moment and the
headmaster’s temperament’
Daily journal of Mr. Oliver D. Jones at Parkside School:
Sept. 21 (1914)
- ½ day holiday – Troops march through
streets
Nov. 5
- Packing up two cases and two bags of
clothes for Belgian children.
April 9 (1915)
- French Flag Day. The band played the
Marseillaise at all fall-ins for the marching. The song was sung
and special reference was made to France in each class. The
French flag was flung from the Flagstaff …
Aug. 5
- At 9.30 all the children assembled … we
saluted the Flag, gave three cheers for the success of the British
Empire, the Australian soldiers, the King of England. The school
gave 10£ to the Soldiers’ Fund.
Dec. 3
- Miss Henstridge rang up Director and
received permission to see her brother off by troopship.
Feb. 15 (1916)
- 1.30 p.m. Just received word from War
Office that my second son had been badly wounded a second
time. The Director gave me permission to go to Eastern
Extension and cable by code.
March 9
- Sent 415 sandbags (complete) to the
Sandbag Society.
March 21
- Miss Spencer disinfected Room 5 in
which Winny Dingle was before being taken ill with diphtheria.
The little girl died in the Children’s Hospital.
March 24
- Miss Henstridge’s class gave a penny
concert – Receipts £2.7.7.
April 20
- The H.T. and staff reminded the class of
Anzac day to be celebrated on Ap. 25.
May 26
- The Medical Inspector sent out a notice
to close the Grade II room. It is bitterly cold and I have nowhere
to put the 2 classes so I sent them home …
Sept. 29
- Mr. Parham (A) enlisted and will leave
today for the camp. The boys cheered him …
Dec 6
- Roll of Honour unveiled by the Director
of Education before 650 children and hundreds of visitors.
Feb. 9 (1917)
- H.T. rang up C. Inspector who gave
permission for me to leave school at 20 past 3 to see my third
son Brynmor off to the War.
April 26
- Wounded Soldiers Fund.
27
- Win the War Day.
June 29
- Violet Day observed.
Aug 13
- Reported third death from diphtheria
and recommending another disinfection.
Sept. 21
- Miss Robinson absent – received news
last night her sweetheart – an old scholar of this school – had
made the supreme sacrifice.
April 13 (1918)
- Children’s Carnival on Oval – Great Day
for Education Department.
Why did some older students and
teachers enlist directly from schools
during the Great War?
SA recruitment poster, c 1915
AWM: ARTV00022
SA recruitment poster, 1915-18
AWM: ARTV08939
SA recruiting poster
AWM: ARTV00022
Unknown kindergarten students ‘salute the flag’, 1912
SLSA: Album Collection B 63020/1
‘Unfurling the Flag’. Mt. Muirhead School,
Empire Day, 1915
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 105
Rendelsham School, boy with drum
and girls with fifes, c 1916
SLSA: Rendelsham Collection B 38561
‘Saluting the flag’, Empire Day at Tanunda School, 1915
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/27/247
Burra School Detachment of Commonwealth Cadets,
1908, of which at least 17 later participated in the
Great War
SLSA Burra Collection: B 27713
‘Sword Drill, Streaky Bay School’, 1913
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 109
‘Gun Squad at Streaky Bay School’, 1913
from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 109
Farewell program, St Peter’s and
Prince Alfred College old boys, 1914
Gibbs, p 167
Hugo Throssell, VC, (Gallipoli) returns to his formerschool, Prince Alfred College, June 1916
Gibbs, p 168
Carved stone war memorial to Pte Percy Venning,
‘erected by the scholars and friends of Pinnaroo State
School’, 1916, after his death in the Dardanelles, 1915
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/1001
Christian Brothers’ College Roll of Honour produced
in 1918 but without a war ‘end date’ ...
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/9/354
Actg Sgt Roy Larwood, teacher, formerly of Yacka
KIA, Flers, 1917
AWM: P092921.045
Capt Julius Kayser, teacher, formerly of Alberton
AWM: H00012
Capt Julius Kayser, far right, Gallipoli, July 1915
KIA, France, Feb 1917
AWM: A01482
Cpl Reginald Thorn, teacher, formerly of Cavenagh,
KIA, Pozières, July 1916, no known grave
AWM: H05743
2nd Lt George Wheaton, high school teacher, formerly
of Kingswood, DoW due to accidental explosion,
November 1917
AWM: P09291.431
Cpl Harry Slee, teacher, formerly of Wallaroo,
KIA, Villers-Bretonneux, April 1918
AWM: P09291.077
Pte Joseph Barnes, teacher, formerly of Payneham,
drowned in Irish Sea, 10 November 1918
AWM: H06691
Lt Arthur Limb, teacher, formerly of Gawler, returned
to Australia, died at Gawler, June 1920
AWM: P00515.001
How did members of school
communities during the Great War
respond to the death and wounding
of people they knew?
‘The Bank of Thrift’:
‘Lest we Forget’, 1919
SLSA: B 2748
Monbulla School memorial
David Marcus, Centenary of Monbulla School, 1894-1994, Monbulla School
Committee, Monbulla, 1994, p. 30.
Terowie School Honour Roll, c. 1920
SLSA: Terowie Collection B 32952
Queens School Honour Board, c 1920
SLSA: B 22082
‘[S]chools waiting anxiously for the
men to return are … “unfamous
history”.’
Fox, p vi
Not if we find the people within the
history …
Thank you.
Schoolchildren at a patriotic function at Aldgate, 1919
SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/24/128