It is a function of the Australian War Memorial to commemorate the sacrifice of Australians who have died on or as a result of active service or as a result of any war or warlike operations in which Australians have been involved. Those who served in Australian forces were commemorated in the Roll of Honour. (AWM141, AWM142, AWM143, AWM144, AWM146, AWM147, AWM148, AWM149, AWM150, AWM151, AWM152, AWM153, AWM163.

In 1975 an amendment was incorporated into the Australian War Memorial Act to allow commemoration of Australians who had served in the Merchant Navy, with other Commonwealth or Allied forces, or with philanthropic organisations attached to the forces. These were people who were ineligible for inclusion on the Roll of Honour as they were not serving in the Australian armed forces. The creation of this roll had initially been considered in 1928 when names for the Roll of Honour were originally compiled, but it was considered at that time that it would be too difficult to compile an accurate or comprehensive list of names. 

In considering how the 1975 amendment should be implemented, the Board of Trustees of the Australian War Memorial decided that the categories of persons to be commemorated on this roll should be Australians who had served in the Merchant Navy, with other Commonwealth or Allied forces, with philanthropic organisations attached to the forces or who were war correspondents or photographers within the time frames stipulated for the Roll of Honour. Civilians, other than those in the foregoing categories, were not included.

An initial appeal to the public for nominations for the Commemorative Roll, launched on 3 February 1981, had only limited success as the existing guidelines for inclusion were insufficient. On 21 August 1984 a second appeal was launched. Names forwarded as a result of these appeals were, when verified as coming within better defined guidelines, incorporated in a card index by AWM staff. Other names were obtained from secondary sources and added to the index. Also incorporated in the series are cards which apparently were part of the Supplementary Roll to the Roll of Honour(AWM 164), which lists those persons who did not come within the Roll of Honours time frame guidelines. These were culled from that series if their subjects were eligible for inclusion on the Commemorative Roll. Work on the index appears to have ceased c.1990.

The cards comprising the index are mostly 15cm by 10cm index cards with a small number of 12.5 by 20cm cards. The cards culled from the Supplementary Roll are also 20cm by 12.5cm but are colour coded with a red, brown or green stripe. The brown stripe designates persons who served with British forces, the red those who served with New Zealand Forces. The significance of the green stripe is unknown. These latter are not included on the Commemorative Roll.

The cards whose subjects are included on the Commemorative Roll are divided into groups, the largest of which lists members of the merchant navy. Two smaller groups list persons lost serving in Allied forces during World War II (with one entry for the Korean War) and with Allied forces or as a war correspondent in the Boer War. There is a small number of miscellaneous cards. The names are listed in alphabetical order.

Each group of cards is identified by an imposed number as follows:

[1] Those who served in the Merchant Navy

[2] Those who served in Allied Forces World War II (with the sole
    Korean War card)

[3] Those who served in Allied Forces Boer War (with the sole War
    Correspondent card)

[4] Miscellaneous cards

[5] Cards culled from the Supplementary Roll

While these cards are the source for much of the entries on the Commemorative Roll they are not the sole source and do not of themselves comprise the complete roll. Other entries for the roll are contained on Australian War Memorial registry files. 

Sources

AWM Registry files:
741/2/4
746/2/6