Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Visiting Mother: Australian Soldiers in London during World War I

The guest speaker at our General Meeting at 2:00pm  on July 16 will be Elise Edwards, curator at The State Library of NSW. Elise's topic is Visiting Mother: Australian Soldiers in London during World War I. 

Elise received a staff fellowship in 2009 to research the Library’s World War I collections. Elise is currently curating an exhibition on the World War I collection of diaries and correspondence; ‘Life Interrupted: personal diaries from World War I’.

Diaries from the First World War reveal the horror, loneliness and the adventure of war. They also express the delight of visiting London on leave. This paper will explore London through the eyes of its Australian visitors. A city mobilised, yet offering respite, entertainments and a sense of home, albeit with London fog.

*Please note that the talk on Monash scheduled for 16 July, has been rescheduled for 2017.