Australian National Archives - Mapping our Anzacs

Mapping our Anzacs is a new resource from the National Archives of Australia on Australia’s involvement in World War I. It uses a map interface created from Google maps and the Google geocoding service to explore Australia’s involvement in this conflict. Visitors to the site can browse the 375,971 service records of soldiers, nurses, and chaplains in the Australian Army according to the person’s place of birth or enlistment.

In addition to locating records of service, visitors may share information on the the site’s scrapbook, offering information about a particular person, or they may build a tribute to a group of service personnel.

To explore the site, and to find out more about how it works, go to http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/

British Library Exhibition: Taking Liberties

The British Library is offering tours to PhD students in December, January, and February of its new exhibition, Taking Liberties: the Struggle for Britain's Freedoms and Rights. The hour-long tour will be followed by a presentation delivered by one of the exhibition's curators. Any Research Student who is interested should contact mailto:sophie.villiers@bl.uk for more information about dates and booking.
This free exhibition runs until 1 March 2009, and explores the evolution of British Democracy in the last millennium from the Magna Carta to the Good Friday Agreement.
On 2 February 2009, join leading historians, social scientists, politicians, campaigners and writers for a Taking Liberties Study Day. Key speakers will include Lord Lester QC, Professor Barbara Taylor and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell . This Study Day is open to anyone who is interested - for more information or to book for this event, please go to http://boxoffice.bl.uk/

CNZS Bulletin of New Zealand Studies student awards

The Centre of New Zealand Studies (CNZS) recently announced that it is offering two student awards of £100 each for submission to its journal, Bulletin of New Zealand Studies.

The first shall be awarded for the best student submission from any subject within New Zealand studies, and the second awarded for the best student submission from any subject within any area of Maori studies.

The closing date for any submission to be considered is 28th February 2009. The following conditions for entry have been outlined by Ian Conrich of the CNZS as follows:

All submissions must be previously unpublished, and follow the CNZS Bulletin's style guidelines. Anyone engaged in part time or full time undergraduate or postgraduate studies or research is able to submit an article, and more than one submission is permitted and to both categories of awards if appropriate. A panel of judges will be drawn from the CNZS Academic Council, International Council, and the advisory boards for the Bulletin and Kakapo Books. The winning article in each category will be published in the CNZS Bulletin for New Zealand Studies.

Anyone interested in further information is directed to contact:
Ian Conrich
Centre for New Zealand Studies
Birkbeck
University of London
Rm.NB300/1
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
Tel: 0207 862 8065
Email: ian@ianconrich.co.uk

Titles received in October

Click to view all additions to the Reference Collection for September and October.

Featured Collection: British West Indies Regiment

On Armistice Day we highlight some material relating to the West Indian contribution to the Great War. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds some records of the British West Indies Regiment, Incluided within the West India Committee papers. These include the War Diary of the 1st Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment, detailing the operational history of the battalion, and the papers of the West Indian Contingent Committee and Ladies Committee – established to provide for the welfare of West Indian soldiers, who visited the camps at Seaford in Sussex and Plymouth, where the units were stationed, raising funds and providing comforts for men in hospitals, clothing, sports equipment and musical instruments, and entertainment and board and lodging for those visiting London.

The experience of West Indian soldiers in the Great War exacerbated underlying tensions and contradictions implicit in West Indian society, stimulating the growth of working-class consciousness and facilitating the growth of black consciousness and nationalism. Peter Fraser has described the war as “a bog into which flowed an idealized loyalty to Britain and an innocent belief in the justice of the metropolitan British and out of which flowed more realistic, jaundiced and cynical views of the true nature of the Imperial connection.”

Despite the level of support for the war effort from the British West Indies, the War Office was initially hostile and reluctant to accept black West Indians. Despite this early unease, by the end of the war 15,601 West Indians had been recruited and sent to do military service in Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, East Africa, India, France, Italy, Belgium and England as members of the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). 185 soldiers were killed or died due to wounds received, a further 697 soldiers were wounded and 1071 died of sickness. The high level of illness has been attributed to the conditions of wartime service, with a poor and irregular diet, unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, poor medical care, climatic conditions and the high incidence of contagious diseases. The Regiment was awarded 5 DSOs, 9 MCs, 2 MBEs, 8 DCMs, 37 MMs and 49 Mentions in Dispatches.

Although two battalions of the BWIR were involved in fighting in Palestine and Jordan against the Turkish army (where they sustained many casualties and honours) the War Office determined that Black colonial troops would not fight against Europeans, consequently most members of BWIR functioned in non-combat positions, as labour battalions. Members of the BWIR also experienced discrimination in housing, promotion, treatment in demobilisation and even pay. The most blatant experience occurred at the end of the war when the entire BWIR were denied a pay rise granted to other imperial troops under Army Order No.1 of 1918. The BWIR soldiers protested quickly and angrily and were supported by West Indian Contingent Committee who pointed out the hypocrisy and impossibility of the situation and warned of the serious effect differentiation would have on public opinion in the colonies when the West Indies contingent was demobilised. Discriminatory treatment was a significant factor in a four day mutiny by the men of the ninth battalion, in December, 1918. These events at Taranto, Italy produced much anxiety in the Colonial Office and impelled it into pressing the War Office to grant the BWIR the pay increase. The argument was won, but not so much as a triumph of fair pay and justice but as an effort to prevent unrest in the West Indies.

More photographs from the collection are available here