Diggers and Diaries Elliott Dudley - Soldier reading

Through the work that the Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc (WAGS) has undertaken on the 11th Battalion A.I.F., Cheops project identifying the soldiers who are in the Khufu (Cheops) Pyramid photo, we have received copies of previously unpublished photos and written material from the families of our 11th Battalion diggers.

Some of this material relates to men of other Battalions and to people who served their country in other ways, such padres, doctors and nursing men and women. Some of the photos that have been donated to our project are of unidentified men and in some cases images include what appears to be other family members. We would like to identify asmeny of these people as possible.

Donating families have all agreed that we should share this material in an appropriate manner. Submitted written material has not previously been published unless acknowledged as such on the article page/s.

(Image at above is a watercolour painting
by Private Dudley Marwood ELLIOTT,
6334 11th Battalion & 807 12th Battalion.
Pte. Elliott Died of Wounds 18 Sep1918.
Image courtesy Bev Russell)

Hidden Voices and Faces

A lot has been written about the “famous” diggers, such as our V.C. and other medal winners, but there is little material readily available on the not so famous ordinary men and their hidden voices and faces.

Neither of the aspects of a voice or a face for many of our diggers is available to the general public. Determined researchers have of course been able to access records held in major repositories, such as the Australian War Memorial, National Archives, State Record Offices, State and local Libraries, Armed Services Museums and many other repositories throughout Australia and overseas. But for many of us, these repositories are either unknown, too far away to visit, or material about the individuals in whom we are interested is not indexed and remains unacessable to the general public.

Through this website we hope to provide a venue for the hidden voices, via the artworks, diaries, letters, memoirs and postcards of diggers and other service personnel to be seen and heard.

We also hope that many of the faces of unidentified soldiers published on this website can be identified and due recognition given to these lost or forgotten diggers.

Contact us

Send in your diggers artworks, memoirs, diaries, letters, postcards and photos for publication on this website; email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Attribution

We provide due attribution to the sources of material provided by members of the public, and official sources, used on this website.

If you use any of the material on this website, please ensure that you do likewise by quoting where you got the material, provide a link back to the relevant page or image and quote the original source as quoted on this website. Please see our Legals page.