The First Australian Imperial Force was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during the First World War. It was formed as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division and one light horse brigade. The infantry division subsequently fought at Gallipoli between April and December 1915, with a newly raised second division, as well as three light horse brigades, reinforcing the committed units.
The Australian Corps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front. It was the largest corps fielded by the British Empire in France. At its peak the Australian Corps numbered 109,881 men. By 1918 the headquarters consisted of more than 300 personnel of all ranks, including senior staff officers, as well as supporting personnel such as clerks, drivers and batmen. Formed on 1 November 1917, the corps replaced I Anzac Corps while II Anzac Corps, which contained the New Zealand Division, became the British XXII Corps on 31 December. While its structure varied, Australian Corps usually included 4–5 infantry divisions, corps artillery and heavy artillery, a corps flying squadron and captive balloon sections, anti-aircraft batteries, corps engineers, corps mounted troops, ordnance workshops, medical and dental units, transport, salvage and an employment company.
Unit colour patches are a method of identification used by the Australian Army, used to indicate which unit a soldier belongs to.
The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units were during World War I and World War II. Although VADs were intimately bound up in the war effort, they were not military nurses, as they were not under the control of the military, unlike the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service, and the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. The VAD nurses worked in field hospitals, i.e., close to the battlefield, and in longer-term places of recuperation back in Britain.
The First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was one of the first military forces to care for soldiers' teeth, and raised a large number of specialist dental units during World War I.
Major General Rupert Major Downes, was an Australian soldier, surgeon and historian.
Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois was an emergency evacuation hospital serving the French 3rd Army Corps during World War I. It was organised and staffed by British volunteers and served French soldiers.
Sir Thomas Ernest Victor Hurley, was a surgeon, medical administrator, military officer and an Australian rules footballer who played with University in the Victorian Football League.
Lieutenant General Sir Vernon Ashton Hobart Sturdee, was an Australian Army commander who served two terms as Chief of the General Staff. A regular officer of the Royal Australian Engineers who joined the Militia in 1908, he was one of the original Anzacs during the First World War, participating in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. In the campaign that followed, he commanded the 5th Field Company, before going on to lead the 8th Field Company and the 4th Pioneer Battalion on the Western Front. In 1918 he was seconded to General Headquarters (GHQ) British Expeditionary Force as a staff officer.
Elizabeth Pearl Corkhill, MM was an Australian military nurse of the First World War. Trained as a nurse in Sydney, Corkhill enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 4 June 1915. After serving in France at the 1st and 3rd Australian General Hospitals, Corkhill was assigned to the 38th British Casualty Clearing Station near Abbeville on 21 August 1918. On 23 August, while the camp was being heavily bombed by enemy aircraft, Corkhill remained calm and continued to tend to her patients, despite the danger. For her bravery, she was awarded the Military Medal, one of only seven Australian nurses to be so decorated in the First World War. Following the Armistice, she went on to work as a nurse at various public hospitals, and donated a large collection of her father's photographs to the National Library of Australia.
The 15th Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Australian Army. Originally raised in 1912 as a Militia formation, the brigade was later re-raised in 1916 as part of the First Australian Imperial Force during World War I. The brigade took part in the fighting on the Western Front in France and Belgium during 1916–1918 before being disbanded in 1919. After this it was re-raised as a part-time unit of the Citizens Force in 1921 in Victoria. During World War II the brigade undertook defensive duties and training in Victoria and Queensland, before being deployed to New Guinea in 1943. Over the course of 1943 and 1944, it took part in the Salamaua–Lae, Markham–Ramu campaigns before returning to Australia in late 1944. In mid-1945, the brigade was committed to the Bougainville campaign, before being disbanded following the end of hostilities.
Sir William Daniel Campbell Williams was an Australian surgeon. He was surgeon general and Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
The role of Australian women in World War I was focused mainly upon their involvement in the provision of nursing services. Australian women also played a significant role on the Homefront, where they filled jobs made vacant by men joining the armed forces. Women also undertook fundraising and recruiting activities as well as organising comfort packages for soldiers serving overseas. Around the issue of conscription, women were involved in campaigning on both sides of the debate, while they were also equally involved in the New South Wales strike in 1917. Nevertheless, despite this involvement, women have never occupied a central position in the Australian version of the Anzac legend, although since the 1970s their role has been examined in more detail as a result of the emergence of feminist historiography, and specialist histories such as the history of nursing.
Grace Margaret Wilson was a high-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and the first years of World War II. Wilson was born in Brisbane, and completed her initial training as a nurse in 1908. After the outbreak of World War I she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and subsequently transferred to the First Australian Imperial Force. From 1915 until 1919 she was the principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. She served as the temporary matron-in-chief in the AIF Headquarters, London from late 1917 until early 1918. Wilson returned to Australia in 1920 and left the AIF to work in civilian hospitals. She was appointed the matron-in-chief of the AANS in 1925, and in September 1940 joined the Second Australian Imperial Force. She served in the Middle East until August 1941, when she returned to Australia due to ill health. She left the Army the next month, but from September 1943 worked in the Department of Manpower Directorate (Victoria)'s nursing control section.
The Australian Army was the largest service in the Australian military during World War I. The First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was the Army's main expeditionary force and was formed from 15 August 1914 with an initial strength of 20,000 men, following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. Meanwhile, the separate, hastily raised 2,000-man Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), landed near Rabaul in German New Guinea on 11 September 1914 and obtained the surrender of the German garrison after ten days; it later provided occupation forces for the duration of the war. In addition, small military forces based on the pre-war Permanent Forces and part-time Citizen Forces were maintained in Australia to defend the country from attack.
The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services (SWH) was founded in 1914. It was led by Dr Elsie Inglis and provided nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. By the end of World War I, 14 medical units had been outfitted and sent to serve in Corsica, France, Malta, Romania, Russia, Salonika and Serbia.
Elements of the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF) were located in the United Kingdom (UK) throughout World War II. For most of the war, these comprised only a small number of liaison officers. However, between June and December 1940 around 8,000 Australian soldiers organised into two infantry brigades and supporting units were stationed in the country. Several small engineer units were also sent to the UK, and up to 600 forestry troops were active there between July 1940 and mid-1943. A prisoner of war (POW) repatriation unit arrived in the UK in August 1944, and over 5,600 released AIF prisoners eventually passed through the country. Following the war, small numbers of Australian soldiers formed part of a military cricket team which toured England, and the Army contributed most members of the Australian contingent to the June 1946 victory parade in London.
Arthur Graham Butler was an Australian soldier and military historian. He was the main author of the Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, part of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918.
Rachel Ward, Countess of Dudley CBE, RRC was a British civic leader and philanthropist. She founded the Lady Dudley Nurses in Ireland and the New South Wales Bush Nursing Association in Australia. Lady Dudley lived in Ireland while her husband served as Lord Lieutenant and in Australia as the consort of the Governor-General. After her marriage ended, she set up the Australian Voluntary Hospital in France in 1914 and she was awarded the Royal Red Cross and made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Ida Greaves was the Australian Matron of the Australian Voluntary Hospital in WWI who became a member of the Royal Red Cross.
Ambulances outside the Australian Voluntary Hospital at the Hôtel du Golf et Cosmopolite in Wimereux. The ambulances carry signs indicating their donors, such as the "Red Cross Society, Queensland"
Nursing staff of the Australian Voluntary Hospital. Matron Ida Greaves is at the front, fourth from the left
Staff Nurse May Miles and Captain R. V. MacDonnell tend to a patient
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