tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post3884080303433460912..comments2024-03-29T15:04:20.549+11:00Comments on ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly: Brothers in Arms, WW1 - a book by Louise WilsonHelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-64525716474961466272016-02-18T14:07:21.258+11:002016-02-18T14:07:21.258+11:00Hello again, Hels. The only written indication of ...Hello again, Hels. The only written indication of my great grandmother's views is contained in the letter she wrote to Nigel on 28 Oct 1928, on p 405 of the book. Her boys both volunteered, but knowing the family 'ethos' and the service by my mother's generation in WW2, I expect she fully supported the notion of duty to one's country in times of trouble, no matter what the personal cost. Seeing how many young men around her were not at the war, suffering like her sons, she may have been pro-conscription. Nigel's comments in the para at the bottom of page 331 hint that she voted 'yes'. But who really knows?Louise Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09220084273709377095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-31771515130885176422016-02-18T12:11:53.224+11:002016-02-18T12:11:53.224+11:00I meant great grandmother. Your grandmother may ha...I meant great grandmother. Your grandmother may have been very brave as well.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-2000446318979538262016-02-18T11:43:47.028+11:002016-02-18T11:43:47.028+11:00Louise
your grandmother was a very brave woman. S...Louise<br /><br />your grandmother was a very brave woman. Since her letters to her sons did not survive, is there any way of knowing how she felt about her sons going to war in Europe? conscription? the peace movement etc?Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-59240858258711270802016-02-18T10:33:15.341+11:002016-02-18T10:33:15.341+11:00I'm sorry to be a late arrival at this discuss...I'm sorry to be a late arrival at this discussion. To begin, thank you Hels for taking the time and trouble to read and then write up your thoughts about 'Brothers in Arms'. I'm intrigued that the discussion is revolving around the survival of these letters as a set. In compiling this book, at first I didn't realise just how unusual this is, for WW1. Shrine of Remembrance staff have told me they've seen nothing else like it. Finally, I'm glad feedback comments support this as an entire, coherent story as that's what I set out to achieve - hence the research to introduce the letters and add brief footnotes, although nothing beats the power of the words penned by my grandmother's brothers.Louise Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09220084273709377095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-49606214182710368032016-02-18T00:47:59.810+11:002016-02-18T00:47:59.810+11:00Mandy
My experience is in the other order. In the...Mandy<br /><br />My experience is in the other order. In the past I read many serious historical analyses of the Great War, but never fictional works. Since finding the War Poets during the last few years, my reading is now expanding rapidly :) Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-75219873988443495572016-02-18T00:44:33.991+11:002016-02-18T00:44:33.991+11:00Andrew
very very enthusiastic to fight in 1914! T...Andrew<br /><br />very very enthusiastic to fight in 1914! They expected to go over to the Continent, clear Europe of the dreaded enemy before Christmas, then come home safely and without fuss. I understand young men's excitement about getting off the farm, travelling the globe and earning some income. Nigel was certainly itching to Get Into It in 1914. <br /><br />But how long did that last? Once the young men discovered they were merely canon fodder to be killed or maimed in 1915, were they still volunteering by their tens of thousands? Why did the White Feather Brigade at home treat young men abominably and why was conscription becoming more and more urgently needed? I don't think the Boulton brothers gave a proper explanation.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-32950605763051309292016-02-17T23:30:46.297+11:002016-02-17T23:30:46.297+11:00I love this. I'm becoming increasingly interes...I love this. I'm becoming increasingly interested in the accounts of real people (in other words, not fictional) from the time of both world wars. Mandyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11931248631361366673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-3577638323192497252016-02-17T12:40:31.816+11:002016-02-17T12:40:31.816+11:00Most were very enthusiastic to serve in WWI until ...Most were very enthusiastic to serve in WWI until the reality hit them. Northern Europe must have been so so bad. Such letters are intriguing because they never tell the whole story and gaps must filled in, perhaps just in the mind if facts are not available.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-11618391634149632032016-02-17T09:37:15.432+11:002016-02-17T09:37:15.432+11:00Student
The State Library of Victoria certainly h...Student<br /><br />The State Library of Victoria certainly has a copy of Brother In Arms. When the new semester starts, I will ask the librarians if we can have a copy of the book permanently in the Flinders Lane branch of the library.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-5943490563787751912016-02-17T09:26:14.095+11:002016-02-17T09:26:14.095+11:00Parnassus
re your second point, what is the chanc...Parnassus<br /><br />re your second point, what is the chance of correspondence within a very ordinary family (not royalty where everything is archived) staying together and being preserved for 100 years? Close to zero, I would have thought. <br /><br />Wilson noted that the brothers' letters were typed in the early 1920s and a copy was presented to the Australian War Memorial which promptly requested the originals. The typed copies were later scanned with OCR (optical character recognition) to create a Word document, and the OCR mistakes certainly needed to be edited. But the entire collection of letters home to mum had survived. That left a relatively simple task in 2015: to interweave the letters chronologically and to add some brief introductions to help the story flow.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-87812427197799770102016-02-17T08:32:29.486+11:002016-02-17T08:32:29.486+11:00Is the book in the CAE library? Is the book in the CAE library? Student of Historynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-71785909773212809592016-02-16T20:15:16.290+11:002016-02-16T20:15:16.290+11:00Hello Hels, Nigel's anxiety that others were ...Hello Hels, Nigel's anxiety that others were promoted over him reminds me of your comments that women doctors were not ideally deployed during the war. It seems that maximum benefit and utility is only one martial consideration.<br /><br />Wilson's account underlines the importance of preserving letters and keeping them together. Today, the letters would likely be broken up and sold individually, perhaps benefiting certain pointed areas of interest or research, but totally eliminating the possibility that an entire, coherent story, like that of the Boultons, could be related or recreated.<br />--JimParnassushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08958901307538141468noreply@blogger.com