In Service

Military service during World War I

: Hughie Charles Stratton, shipwright at Sydney Harbour Trust, died 9 November 1917. Digital ID 20231_a43_000022

: Still a place. British recruitment poster, GPO glass negatives, black and white. NRS 4481 Box 606-303 Image 13

: Photographs of the Railway Supply Detachment in Egypt, 1915, from NRS 15298/1/4 [23], p.347

With the declaration of war on 4 August 1914 Australia found itself fighting a war that took place, for the most part, on the other side of the world. The people of New South Wales responded to the new wartime demands in a variety of ways. Many volunteered to serve their state and the Commonwealth of Australia as soldiers and nurses. The NSW Government turned its vast state wide machinery to supporting the war effort and undertook recruitment campaigns to encourage enlistment.

Public Service/War Service

The Western Sydney Records Centre at Kingswood hosted an exhibition in 2015-2016 focusing on how war time demands affected NSW government departments and government employees. The exhibition highlighted profiles of eleven government employees, including Edith Blake, Harold Bindoff, Major-General William Holmes and Romola Koester.

Search our new online index, NSW Government employees granted military leave, 1914-18.