I am travelling to France this week and have been reading as much as I can about my maternal great-grandfather Major Armadale Charles Anderson, 26th Btn, and paternal great-uncle Pte Alfred Bryant, 8th Btn, both of whom saw battle on many parts of the Western Front, and both of whom were recognised for bravery - MID and MM respectively.

I have only just received a copy of a very extensive newspaper article from the AWM archives about Major Anderson (including a photo), which I didn’t know existed, and am intrigued to read that his company held the railway embankment during the 2nd Battle of Bullecourt and dug a trench which became known as Anderson’s Trench. I intend now to try to locate it when I am at Bullecourt next week.

Thank you to the AWM for helping to keep these men’s memories alive for their families.

Editor’s response: Thanks for this Veronica and I’m so glad you were able to find the letter from your uncle Frank. One of the true rewards for us archivists is knowing when our work in preserving these records comes to fruition. We spend our time going over the records in order to understand them, then describing, indexing, digitising and making them accessible via the web. It’s a real joy when a meaningful connection is made between present and past generations, especially when they are family.

Cheers,

Craig Tibbitts
Curator Official Records
Australian War Memorial

Editor’s response: Hi Lynne, fortunately there is plenty of information available online for you to find out about your grandfather. Please click on the links below:

Embarkation Roll (this records basic details when he first embarked for overseas service).

Personal service dossier (this records in detail all the details of his service. This record is held by the National Archives of Australia).

Recommendation for his Military Cross (this tells you why he won the award).

46th Battalion unit profile (basic details about his unit).

46th Battalion war diaries (records in great detail the activities of his unit, month by month).

I’m sure you’ll find all of this interesting reading.

Regards,

Craig Tibbitts
Curator Official Records
Australian War Memorial

Editor’s response: Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. We keep the unit war diaries for the 2nd Division Artillery Column and the the 5th Field Artillery Brigade. They are available to read on microfilm at our Research Centre now, however we are currently digitising them and are making them available to read online. Just check this page over the next several weeks as more diaries are added. You can see the units you want are lower down the list but they will be done. In the meantime, you can get some very basic details on the 2nd Division’s artillery from this page. Just scroll down the left side of the page and click on ‘Artillery’.

As for the French Medal of Honour we just have his database entry for that. It is referenced to the London and Commonwealth Gazettes, but you’d normally only see his name in a list there anyhow - no further details. There are however a few details referring to the award on his service dossier, available online via the National Archives of Australia. On page 14 it says the award was for ‘conspicuous service’.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,

Craig Tibbitts
Curator Official Records
Australian War Memorial.