Australian Families’ Responses to War Death
and Disability after the First World War
Dr Marina Larsson
Background
• Honorary Research Associate La Trobe
• Shattered Anzacs 2009
• Anzac Legacies 2010
VCE Focus
Examine:
The ways in which Australians responded to particular
threats and whether this led to a rethinking of old
certainties.
The ways in which Australians acted in response to a
significant crisis faced by the country.
Lecture Focus
► War
as a crisis for the
family.
► The crisis of war did not
end in 1918.
War as a crisis for families
► Families
make up the
social fabric.
► War affects more than
just soldiers.
► It was in families that the
painful costs of war were
managed.
► Aftermath of war endures
beyond 1918.
Who were the
men of the First
AIF?




Half aged 18-24
80% unmarried
80% tradesmen, labourers, ‘country calling’
Multiple deaths/disablement in one family.
Statistics
324,000
Served Overseas
60,000 Dead
152,000
‘Incidents of Wounding’
Returned Men (Number?)
1. No disability; or
2. Unpensioned disabilities.
90,000+
Pensioned
Disabled Ex-servicemen
1920s-30s
(1920 Data)
About 2-3 Australian ex-servicemen died from war-related causes per day.
AG Butler, The Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, vol. 3, p. 965.
Impact during 1914-18
Soldiers invalided home
because of disability
Deaths
1914
6
1915
8,452
1916
15,901
1917
26,047
1918
1914
1915
7,819
1916
12,823
42,420
1917
20,628
1919
161,379
1918
12,553
1920
10,054
1919
27
1921
83
1922
31
The Age
24 April 1937
In Memoriam notices, the day
before Anzac Day
War Death
(1914-18)
►A
noble death?
► Modern technologies of
mutilation.
► Massive scale of death.
► 20% members of AIF dead.
► ¾ all deaths occurred
Western Front.
Bodies of Australian soldiers Ypres Sector, Belgium. 20 September 1917
Grief and Loss
Fellow soldiers (battlefront)



Witness death.
Bury dead.
Write to families
Families (homefront)




Bodies of Dead Soldiers Gallipoli, 1915.
Must grieve in absence of body.
44% AIF (25,000) missing bodies.
80% AIF unmarried, 52% aged 18-24.
Parents are primary grievers.
War Memorials


Surrogate graves.
Sites of mourning.
Alphington War Memorial, built 1921.
War Disability and Families
 Start returning mid-1915.
 Diversity of disabilities (internal
damage, missing body parts, blindness,
paralysis, lung damage, shell shock)
 Family: a site of repatriation.
 Women: caregivers.
 Entire families need to adjust.
Economic impact
Emotional impact
War Disability
Economic Impact
Value of War Disability
Pension
100% Rate
140
120
Shillings
100
80
60
40
20
0
Civilian basic wage
£5/16/0 per week
War disability pension
£4/2/6 per week
War Disability
Rates of W arEconomic
Disability Pension
- Distribution
Impact
(1924)
Number of Pensioners
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
9%
0-
9%
10
-1
9%
20
-2
9%
30
-3
9%
40
-4
9%
50
-5
9%
60
-6
9%
70
-7
9%
-8
80
90
-9
9%
0%
10
10
0+
%
0
Rate of Pension
Most disabled soldiers received only partial pensions (data from 1924)
War Disability
Economic Impact
War Disability
Emotional Impact
 Family life transformed.
 Family caregiving
Wives and mothers
 Shell shock
 Wives = nurses.
Impact on Family Relationships
Families under pressure




Financial worries
Violence, alcohol
Marriage breakdown
Abandonment
Resilient families
 Financial resources
 Family support
 Type of disability
Burdens of Family Caregiving
Dear Sir,
I feel it is my duty to write a few lines to you to let you know how
my son [Herbert] is progressing … He is not going back any: all
the same he is not normal and I doubt he will ever be ... he gets
up and goes to bed as he likes, and he is now trying his best to
work up a little Bee farm … before the war Bee stings had no
effect on him but he don’t take so kindly to them now. Too nervy
I think …I hope whenever it comes you will speak on behalf of
him for a pension for him: his father is 73 years and I am 65
years: and the home is always here for him. He is now over 40
years and his life is blighted. It has been a long war for us …
I remain yours truly,
Clara Stephens
[October 1927 ]
The Postwar Dead
 Soldiers
dying from
wounds in Australia 1915
onwards.
 Ways of death/grief
different from battlefield.
►
►
►
Presence of family, presence of a body.
Can have a funeral/grave.
Varying emotional consequences.
 But
marginalised in
national memory.
Herald, 6 October
1932.
Summary
War wounds soldiers and civilians.
 Families: locus for dealing with aftermath.
 Families’ burdens:






Grief - resulting from death/disability
Caregiving.
Economic.
Emotional.
When does the aftermath end?
Conclusion
John Hargreaves
Shell shock
Alfred Plane, lost leg
Frank Falconer
Head injuries
The human crisis/cost
of war.