Oodnadatta children and a local lady at a fund-raising afternoon tea organised by the girls, 1914

SLSA: Oodnadatta Collection B 50505

‘Harry Stopp (8 years 4 months) who by his Singing at Recent Australia Day Entertainments has Collected

£7 4s for Australian Wounded Soldiers’ Fund’, 1916from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 110

‘Red Cross Helpers’, Inman Valley Schoolfrom ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 110

‘“Young Australia”. Luna South, of the Auburn Primary School, collected £15 for the wounded soldiers on

Australia Day’, 1916from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111

‘The Handy Men Behind the Gun’. Paskeville School, 1915from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111

‘Greenock School Concert – Red Cross Tableau’. 1917from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 111

‘Young cadets’. Unknown school, 1914from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 105

Children in a patriotic parade witha goat cart ‘ambulance’, Kadina, c 1916

SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/39/58

Local residents, including lines of children at the rear, walking in a patriotic procession at Bute, 1915

SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/23/293

‘Juvenile Nurses’, Campbelltown patriotic carnivalin aid of the Soldiers’ and Red Cross funds, 1917

SLSA: PRG 733/6

North Adelaide School drum and fife band studentsin a procession to the Prospect Oval for a carnival in aid of the

Australian Soldiers’ Repatriation Fund, 1916SLSA: PRG 733/85

Girls dressed as nurses collecting money duringa patriotic procession, 1917

SLSA: PRG 733/333

Patriotic procession along King William St led by students from the Prince Alfred College band

SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/816

‘Red cross’ formed by children on the Adelaide Oval during a Red Cross Society fund-raising display, 1918

Searcy Collection: PRG 280/1/18/37

Children, teachers and onlookers at Kyre College (later Scotch College) with their tins of money collected, c

1917SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/951

SA poster encouraging war loans. School children were encouraged to promote peace bonds to adults, as well as ‘keep

their own pledge’ if at all possibleAWM: ARTV00784

War loan ‘tank’ in Kapunda escorted through the town by Kapunda School children and teacher

Searcy Collection: PRG 280/1/17/384

‘Leaving Adelaide’, 17 February 1917. School children and teachers often swelled crowds at farewells

AWM: P05182.103

What were some of the consequences of the Great War for daily life in schools?

SA teachers’ daily journalsThiele, pp 122-23

‘The frustration, humour, pathos, tragedy and trivia of the classroom and of the world that encircled it … Fund-raising, firewood, and handkerchiefs for soldiers; flag-flying, leaking tanks, patriotism and the dark threat of diphtheria; disinfectants, diarrhoea, garden seeds and a shortage of chalk; fetes, Queen Competitions, and War Office telegrams touched with death – these and a thousand other entries went down in blue-black ink with steel-nib pens, written hastily or carefully according to the pressures of the moment and the headmaster’s temperament’

Daily journal of Mr. Oliver D. Jones at Parkside School:

Sept. 21 (1914) - ½ day holiday – Troops march through streetsNov. 5 - Packing up two cases and two bags of clothes for Belgian children.

April 9 (1915) - French Flag Day. The band played the Marseillaise at all fall-ins for the marching. The song was sung and special reference was made to France in each class. The French flag was flung from the Flagstaff …Aug. 5- At 9.30 all the children assembled … we saluted the Flag, gave three cheers for the success of the British Empire, the Australian soldiers, the King of England. The school gave 10£ to the Soldiers’ Fund.Dec. 3 - Miss Henstridge rang up Director and received permission to see her brother off by troopship.

Feb. 15 (1916) - 1.30 p.m. Just received word from War Office that my second son had been badly wounded a second time. The Director gave me permission to go to Eastern Extension and cable by code.March 9 - Sent 415 sandbags (complete) to the Sandbag Society.March 21 - Miss Spencer disinfected Room 5 in which Winny Dingle was before being taken ill with diphtheria. The little girl died in the Children’s Hospital.March 24 - Miss Henstridge’s class gave a penny concert – Receipts £2.7.7.April 20 - The H.T. and staff reminded the class of Anzac day to be celebrated on Ap. 25.May 26 - The Medical Inspector sent out a notice to close the Grade II room. It is bitterly cold and I have nowhere to put the 2 classes so I sent them home …

Sept. 29 - Mr. Parham (A) enlisted and will leave today for the camp. The boys cheered him …Dec 6 - Roll of Honour unveiled by the Director of Education before 650 children and hundreds of visitors.Feb. 9 (1917) - H.T. rang up C. Inspector who gave permission for me to leave school at 20 past 3 to see my third son Brynmor off to the War.April 26 - Wounded Soldiers Fund. 27 - Win the War Day.June 29 - Violet Day observed.Aug 13 - Reported third death from diphtheria and recommending another disinfection.Sept. 21 - Miss Robinson absent – received news last night her sweetheart – an old scholar of this school – had made the supreme sacrifice.

April 13 (1918) - Children’s Carnival on Oval – Great Day for Education Department.

Why did some older students and teachers enlist directly from schools during the Great

War?

SA recruitment poster, c 1915AWM: ARTV00022

SA recruitment poster, 1915-18AWM: ARTV08939

SA recruiting posterAWM: ARTV00022

Unknown kindergarten students ‘salute the flag’, 1912SLSA: Album Collection B 63020/1

‘Unfurling the Flag’. Mt. Muirhead School,Empire Day, 1915

from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 105

Rendelsham School, boy with drumand girls with fifes, c 1916

SLSA: Rendelsham Collection B 38561

‘Saluting the flag’, Empire Day at Tanunda School, 1915SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/27/247

Burra School Detachment of Commonwealth Cadets, 1908, of which at least 17 later participated in the

Great WarSLSA Burra Collection: B 27713

‘Sword Drill, Streaky Bay School’, 1913from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 109

‘Gun Squad at Streaky Bay School’, 1913from ‘The Children’s Hour’, in Bonnin, p 109

Farewell program, St Peter’s andPrince Alfred College old boys, 1914

Gibbs, p 167

Hugo Throssell, VC, (Gallipoli) returns to his former-school, Prince Alfred College, June 1916

Gibbs, p 168

Carved stone war memorial to Pte Percy Venning, ‘erected by the scholars and friends of Pinnaroo State School’, 1916, after

his death in the Dardanelles, 1915SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/15/1001

Christian Brothers’ College Roll of Honour produced in 1918 but without a war ‘end date’ ...

SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/9/354

Actg Sgt Roy Larwood, teacher, formerly of YackaKIA, Flers, 1917

AWM: P092921.045

Capt Julius Kayser, teacher, formerly of AlbertonAWM: H00012

Capt Julius Kayser, far right, Gallipoli, July 1915KIA, France, Feb 1917

AWM: A01482

Cpl Reginald Thorn, teacher, formerly of Cavenagh,KIA, Pozières, July 1916, no known grave

AWM: H05743

2nd Lt George Wheaton, high school teacher, formerly of Kingswood, DoW due to accidental explosion,

November 1917AWM: P09291.431

Cpl Harry Slee, teacher, formerly of Wallaroo,KIA, Villers-Bretonneux, April 1918

AWM: P09291.077

Pte Joseph Barnes, teacher, formerly of Payneham, drowned in Irish Sea, 10 November 1918

AWM: H06691

Lt Arthur Limb, teacher, formerly of Gawler, returned to Australia, died at Gawler, June 1920

AWM: P00515.001

How did members of school communities during the Great War respond to the death and

wounding of people they knew?

‘The Bank of Thrift’:‘Lest we Forget’, 1919

SLSA: B 2748

Monbulla School memorialDavid Marcus, Centenary of Monbulla School, 1894-1994, Monbulla School

Committee, Monbulla, 1994, p. 30.

Terowie School Honour Roll, c. 1920SLSA: Terowie Collection B 32952

Queens School Honour Board, c 1920SLSA: B 22082

‘[S]chools waiting anxiously for the men to return are … “unfamous history”.’Fox, p vi

Not if we find the people within the history …

Thank you.

Schoolchildren at a patriotic function at Aldgate, 1919SLSA: Searcy Collection PRG 280/1/24/128