Research and adopt a veteran - Telling the story

Where can additional information be found to add to the story?

To enhance the story of your veteran you can add maps, photos, and images of related artefacts and ephemera.

Search for additional materials using a variety of search terms such as dates, unit names, names of colleagues, place names at:

Trove¹ – the National Archives of Australia database
National Archives of Australia², reference the PhotoSearch³ option
Australian War Memorial collections⁴
State Library of New South Wales ⁵
State Library – World War I and Australia research guide⁶
NSW State records – Records of NSW and World War I⁷
Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park Sydney⁸
Australian Army World War One 1914 to 1918 primary materials⁹.

photo of Australian field engineers in Lemnos, Greece 1915 — 1st Section and 2nd Section of 1st Field Company Engineers¹⁰ arriving from Anzac for a spell crossing the shallow arm of Mudros Harbour towards Sarpi Camp. Lemnos, Greece. October 1915. Public domain, Australian War Memorial.

Additional sources

How the research is presented will depend on the age of the students.

Strategies include:

create a collage of a veteran’s life
hold a commemoration ceremony
create a memorial
write a letter to a veteran as if they were at the front
present the veteran’s story at an Anzac Day or Remembrance Day ceremony (see next tab)
debate the merits of going to war or staying home
re-enact scenes as they tell their loved ones of signing up
publish a story for the local newspaper
record an interview with a relative of the veteran
record a discussion of the impact of the war on the life of the veteran and his family.

Once the veteran’s story is finished, it could be submitted to the National Archives of Australia Discovering Anzacs website (pictured) for publication.

Anzac soldier from National Archives Discovering Anzacs project — ©National Archives of Australia¹⁴

Student presentation using Adobe Voice

Transcript

Transcript: Adobe Voice student presentation

Frederick Charles Brightfield was one of the nearly 420,000 Australian men who enlisted in the First World War. [caption: Frederick Brightfield]

Born in Leichhardt, Sydney, he was the eldest of 13 children of Gertrude and Arthur Brightfield.

Fred was 25 when he decided to join the Australian Imperial Force. [caption: Fred was living in Redfern at the time.]

The AIF placed him in the 1st Field Company Engineers, as a member of the 9th Reinforcements.

In October 1915 he left Melbourne on board HMAT Port Lincoln, bound for war. [caption: HMAT Port Lincoln in convoy during the war.]

Fred was experienced with horses and transporting goods, so he was made a ‘driver’. Later he was promoted to ‘sapper’ or engineer.

Sappers built and repaired infrastructure such as bridges, trenches and roads. The work was hard and the conditions were difficult.

Fred’s company would have been vulnerable to enemy attacks and the constant threat of gassing.

As well as putting up with rats and lice, he would have seen men suffering from shell-shock and trench foot.

The company moved around battle sites and Fred saw men killed, including one of his commanders.

During 1917 his company moved between France and Belgium, mostly by train. [caption: North-west France around Ypres showing the border with Belgium.]

Once they got to Amiens they had to march for two-and-a-half hours in full kit and defend themselves along the route.

By September 1917 Fred’s company was near Ypres in Flanders. Some 38,000 Australians were killed or wounded in the battles of Ypres that year. [caption: War-torn Ypres, 1917.]

Fred was severely wounded in the thigh by gunshot in May 1918. He was treated first in France, then England, but the war ended before he could get back to his company. [caption: Fred was first treated at Le Havre hospital in France.]

Fred returned to Australia early 1919 aboard the Orca and was discharged in April.

About a year later he married Dorothy Tripcony in Sydney and they had eight children.

When the Second World War broke out Fred put his age down by five years so he could enlist.

Three of his brothers, who had been too young for the First World War, also joined up. [caption: Fred’s 18 year old daughter Freda also enlisted.]

Having served in two World Wars, Frederick Charles Brightfield died in 1973 aged 83. [caption: Frederick Brightfield 1891-1973.]

Research assistance

Where can additional information be found to add to the story?

Links