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Those We Forget: Recounting Australian Casualties of the First World
The official Australian casualty statistics suffered by the men of the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War are seriously wrong, with significant inaccuracies and omissions.
Groundbreaking research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers’ records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than officially acknowledged today.
Why has it taken nearly one hundred years for this to come to light?
Was it a conspiracy to suppress the toll, incompetence of Australia’s official war historians Bean and Butler, or was it simply the unquestioning acceptance of the official record?
You are invited on the journey in this book to find the truth. The findings are startling and will rewrite Australia’s casualty statistics of the First World War.
Lest we forget.
Groundbreaking research exhaustively examining over 12,000 individual soldiers’ records has revealed that hospitalisations for wounding, illness and injury suffered by men of the AIF are five times greater than officially acknowledged today.
Why has it taken nearly one hundred years for this to come to light?
Was it a conspiracy to suppress the toll, incompetence of Australia’s official war historians Bean and Butler, or was it simply the unquestioning acceptance of the official record?
You are invited on the journey in this book to find the truth. The findings are startling and will rewrite Australia’s casualty statistics of the First World War.
Lest we forget.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2014
About the author
David Noonan
73 books11 followersDavid Noonan is an Australian artist known for his distinctive collage-based practice that merges found imagery with screen-printing, painting, and textile work to explore themes of performance, ritual, and the theatrical. Born in Ballarat, Victoria in 1969, Noonan studied fine art at Ballarat University College and later earned his MFA from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. He relocated to London, where he currently lives and works.
Noonan's work has been widely exhibited internationally, with solo shows at leading institutions including the Tate Modern in London, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Chisenhale Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. His haunting, monochromatic pieces often draw from archival sources such as stage productions, avant-garde film, and folk traditions, lending his art an enigmatic and timeless quality.
In 2020, he was featured in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and his exhibition Stagecraft at the Art Gallery of Ballarat reflected his long-standing interest in performance and transformation. His work is held in major public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate, the Guggenheim, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Noonan's work has been widely exhibited internationally, with solo shows at leading institutions including the Tate Modern in London, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Chisenhale Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. His haunting, monochromatic pieces often draw from archival sources such as stage productions, avant-garde film, and folk traditions, lending his art an enigmatic and timeless quality.
In 2020, he was featured in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and his exhibition Stagecraft at the Art Gallery of Ballarat reflected his long-standing interest in performance and transformation. His work is held in major public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate, the Guggenheim, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 8, 2020
Those We Forgot: Recounting Australia's Casualties of the First World War by David Noonan is a re-examination of Australia's human loses in World War I. Noonan became interested in the war when he read over one hundred letters his grandfather wrote from the Western Front. He retraced his grandfather’s service in France and Belgium. That interest grew into a PhD in History and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne.
War is chaos and record keeping in chaos is not very accurate. Noonan examines the official numbers of Australia's war dead and compares that to his research. Last year I read Steven Casey’s When Soldiers Fall which covered US losses from WWI to Afghanistan. There are very similar problems in both books. The biggest problems concern what is a casualty? There is no standard definition. Is it death, disabling injury, temporary injury, prisoner of war, illness, food poisoning, desertion, all of these, a combination of these?
Noonan uses statistical methods to come to his results which are more accurate than the official records. The research finds some surprising information, such as venereal disease was a major problem in the AIF (Australian Imperial Force). Australian forces separated from home far away did not have the luxury of crossing the channel on leave to rejoin loved ones. Many who joined did not embark many were discharged for a variety of reasons before deploying.
Shell shock was another matter. If it was recorded, it had to be evaluated whether is was physical or psychological or even real. It may seem strange that it might not be considered a combat injury, remember that Gulf War Syndrome was questioned as being a real ailment. World War I also had the first stages of the Spanish Flu outbreak, various diseases from life in trenches. Suicides and deaths after the end of the conflict, but caused by the conflict are also studied and accounted for.
Noonan uses samples and statistical data to complete a more accurate count of casualties. Although he is successful in giving a more accurate count not all the book is statistical data. He examines individual service files and provides a very good background into the medical and casualty reporting in the war. Although it is impossible to account for everyone, Noonan’s work goes a long way in accounting for many that were forgotten.
Thank you to the Melbourne University Press for making book to readers and reviewers on this side of the Pacific.
War is chaos and record keeping in chaos is not very accurate. Noonan examines the official numbers of Australia's war dead and compares that to his research. Last year I read Steven Casey’s When Soldiers Fall which covered US losses from WWI to Afghanistan. There are very similar problems in both books. The biggest problems concern what is a casualty? There is no standard definition. Is it death, disabling injury, temporary injury, prisoner of war, illness, food poisoning, desertion, all of these, a combination of these?
Noonan uses statistical methods to come to his results which are more accurate than the official records. The research finds some surprising information, such as venereal disease was a major problem in the AIF (Australian Imperial Force). Australian forces separated from home far away did not have the luxury of crossing the channel on leave to rejoin loved ones. Many who joined did not embark many were discharged for a variety of reasons before deploying.
Shell shock was another matter. If it was recorded, it had to be evaluated whether is was physical or psychological or even real. It may seem strange that it might not be considered a combat injury, remember that Gulf War Syndrome was questioned as being a real ailment. World War I also had the first stages of the Spanish Flu outbreak, various diseases from life in trenches. Suicides and deaths after the end of the conflict, but caused by the conflict are also studied and accounted for.
Noonan uses samples and statistical data to complete a more accurate count of casualties. Although he is successful in giving a more accurate count not all the book is statistical data. He examines individual service files and provides a very good background into the medical and casualty reporting in the war. Although it is impossible to account for everyone, Noonan’s work goes a long way in accounting for many that were forgotten.
Thank you to the Melbourne University Press for making book to readers and reviewers on this side of the Pacific.
August 15, 2014
This book was fantastic. More a 4.5 star rating than a 4. It would have been a five star, but the beginning was somewhat dragging and repetitious.
Confession time here, I'm more into WWII history than WWI, so I didn't really know anything about WWI, especially not the Australian side of things, when I picked up this book. It was eye-opening. Once I got past the first 23% or so, it picked up and none of it was written too far above the average reader. There were a lot of statistics and numbers and percentages in this book and while I'm not the biggest math person around, I was able to follow it pretty well. My only complaint was that since this was an eARC, the graphs and pictures didn't all come through. The ones that I could see vastly increased my comprehension of the written material, so I do feel that I missed out on some information.
It was staggering the losses that the Australians experienced in WWI and the impact of the war went beyond the war itself and the deaths it caused. The author goes as deep as possible to try to bring to light the true amount of suffering to both the soldier and civilian alike. The only thing that makes the whole war sadder is that this book wasn't written while there were still some veterans left to be acknowledged for their sacrifice.
I highly recommend this book to WWI buffs and for even people such as myself, who don't know much about WWI, but want to learn. Very well written book about a very sad topic. I highly recommend it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Melbourne University Publishing for a copy of the eARC to read and review.
Confession time here, I'm more into WWII history than WWI, so I didn't really know anything about WWI, especially not the Australian side of things, when I picked up this book. It was eye-opening. Once I got past the first 23% or so, it picked up and none of it was written too far above the average reader. There were a lot of statistics and numbers and percentages in this book and while I'm not the biggest math person around, I was able to follow it pretty well. My only complaint was that since this was an eARC, the graphs and pictures didn't all come through. The ones that I could see vastly increased my comprehension of the written material, so I do feel that I missed out on some information.
It was staggering the losses that the Australians experienced in WWI and the impact of the war went beyond the war itself and the deaths it caused. The author goes as deep as possible to try to bring to light the true amount of suffering to both the soldier and civilian alike. The only thing that makes the whole war sadder is that this book wasn't written while there were still some veterans left to be acknowledged for their sacrifice.
I highly recommend this book to WWI buffs and for even people such as myself, who don't know much about WWI, but want to learn. Very well written book about a very sad topic. I highly recommend it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Melbourne University Publishing for a copy of the eARC to read and review.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews