Attendance: 36 Members: 28 (of 46) 61% Guests: 9
Speaker: Hon Ted Baillieu Topic: We Will Remember Them
Members and guests were entertained by our own member, Ted Baillieu, former Victorian Premier, who gave us a very entertaining and educational presentation on an obvious “passion project” he has been involved with for some time, The UNSW Canberra AIF Project. As many members may know, following his term as premier, Ted became heavily involved in the history and connections in the community of the First World War. His personal connection included the fact that his mother's father (his grandfather) Captain William Knox had travelled to the Middle East, had served at Gallipoli and was killed in action in France. He had the opportunity to represent Victoria in 2008, visiting Gallipoli and France and also served on the Victorian ANZAC Committee between 2014-2018.
Ted's presentation focused on “Connection”: not just the family connections to those who had served in World War I, but also connections of suburbs and cities from where the soldiers came. After an initial introduction to the project, with the tech assistance of PP Cheryl, he showed an engrossed audience just how straightforward it was to trace information by submitting a name and (if known) place of residence of an ancestor or connection who left Australia between 1914 and 1918. As he commented, so many of us know of the battles, the losses and other history of the war that was supposed to end all wars but may not realise that there IS a connection. Ultimately, particularly in suburbs such as Hawthorn and Glenferrie where many of the properties predate 1914, there could be a connection. Ted provided many such examples. As part of the presentation, Ted shared information on some of the family names of Glenferrie Rotarians - some unaware of the history, whereas many had already researched the military background of their relation. One surprised attendee was our newest member Laura Schembri learning that there were two men named Schembri on the database. Indeed, there were Maltese, Chinese to name just a few who who left Australia to fight.
So, what is the AIF Project about? Access to all this information is easy - just click on https://aif.adfa.edu.au/aif/ and enter details in the fields provided - you never know what you might learn - including the name of your great-grandmother.
Ted also pointed out the commemorative poppy, knitted by his wife, Robyn, that he was wearing. He reminded many of us of the amazing project started by two women from Glen Iris back in 2015 which grew into The 5,000 Poppies Project blossoming into thousands and thousands of poppies commemorating the First World War, including at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2016 where nearly 300,000 individually handcrafted, crocheted, and knitted red poppies covered nearly all of the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds.
It was a very comprehensive and informative presentation and the questions that followed indicated the interest of the audience. When asked if there was going to be something similar to cover World War II, Ted responded that it was hopeful that would occur but “it all depends upon funding”. As one member commented: “it was a fascinating talk”.
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