Summary heading

Function and purpose

Related legislation

Using the series

Language of material

Physical characteristics

System of arrangement and control

Relationships with other records

Finding aids

Access conditions

Series history

Provenance

Immediate source of acquisition

Custodial history

The Bond of Sacrifice is a collection of photographic portraits created at the end of the First World War as a tribute to the men of the British Empire who risked or lost their lives, many of whom still lie in unmarked graves.

Some of these pictures were collected by the British Imperial War Museum from photographic studios in London where servicemen would proudly
pay to have their portrait taken on their way to or from the Western Front.

Many other portraits were donated by grieving families, some of whom sent the only photograph they had in the hope that the loss of their kin would not be meaningless and that they would not simply disappear, unrecognised and unremembered. However, the Bond of Sacrifice collection had lain largely forgotten and in its then current form was inaccessible to most Australian families and Researchers.

A century later, the desire to commemorate family members who lost their lives in the First World War is steadily growing.
Each year increasing numbers of Australians visit Gallipoli and the Western Front and make the effort to seek out details of their grandfathers and great-uncles from the collections of the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives.

With a grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and with the considerable help of the Imperial War Museum’s photograph curators, a Trust Researcher examined the 16,000 items in the Museum collection identifying and recording details of the Australian portraits. Funding was later provided by the Dept of Veterans’ Affairs for the digitising of the Images and digital copies were made available to the National Archives of Australia for its Collection and Website access.

Two thirds of the Australian portraits are held in the collection of the Australian War Memorial having been originally donated by Australian families.
Approximately one third of the Australian portraits were collected in London by the Imperial War Museum or donated directly to the museum by the British families of Australian servicemen and are likely to be confirmed as unique to the Bond of Sacrifice collection.

First World War service records of the men depicted, can be found online on the Website of the National Archives of Australia: http://www.naa.gov.au/ Details of the enlistment, death and burial of the men can also be found on the websites of the Australian War Memorial: http://www.awm.gov.au/ and the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.cwgc.org/

Quantity in agency custody

Disposal history

Publication note

Additional information

End notes

Sources

http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/media/fellows/2009_Page-Allen_Courtney.pdf

http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/
(Accessed 23 October 2014)