Series Number

AWM 224

 

Series Title

Unit manuscript histories

 

Date series created

June 1990

 

Series contents date range

1860-1970

 

Extent

13 metres

 

Access conditions

Subject to the Australian Archives Act (1983)

 

Agency controlling

Australian War Memorial

 

Function and provenance

Most items in this series appear to have been accumulated, in part, as a result of two military orders.  Firstly, Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Order No. 758 (13 July 1917) instructed formations and units of the AIF to forward copies of their war diaries and official correspondence to the recently formed Australian War Records Section (AWRS). 

 

Secondly, Military Order No. 539 (8 November 1919) Unit Histories – Scheme of Government Assistance, offered to support the publication of short unit histories of the AIF.  Advances (mostly £60) were to be repaid in the event of the unit history not being published within a reasonable time, and a progress report provided when requested. Other conditions related to notice of publication, profit from sales, and supply of a certain number of free copies (eg to the Australian War Memorial). Applications to take advantage of the scheme were to be forwarded to the Secretary for Defence (Unit Histories) at the Defence Department in Melbourne. 

 

Not all units took advantage of the scheme, some publishing their histories independently. The subsidised units sometimes experienced considerable problems in completing their histories, due to difficulties in finding suitable authors, loss of source material, etc. Some histories were abandoned, others required substantial editorial work. In nearly all cases, units overestimated the sale value of their works. Nevertheless, the scheme was considered to be successful. Some applications for grants continued to be made into the 1930's, although the Fund had been effectively exhausted by then. (A Bazley to J Treloar, 16 September 1932, AWM93, 12/5/213).

 

Upon arrival, it is likely that the manuscripts were typed up in the AWRS typing pool. They were probably in Australian War Memorial (AWM) custody by 1926, by which time AWRS records had been transferred to the AWM, then based in Melbourne.  In 1935 they were moved to Canberra where the Memorial’s library had just been established.  The manuscripts formed part of the ‘M’ series of the library’s collection until around the late 1970’s when they became part of the Memorial’s Written Records Collection.  In 1983 they came under the control of the Official Written Records Section, then in 1990 were designated Series AWM224, Items 1 to 637.  Manuscript items numbering from MSS638 remain in the Memorial’s Private Records Collection.

 

Content

The manuscripts in this series contain numerous examples of these unit histories, many of which were never published.  They show a range of reporting by units and formations of the AIF, from short unit histories drafted with publication in mind, to war diaries.  Unfortunately not all units are represented in this series and many who are have submitted only précis style reports that lack detail.

 

There are only around thirty items in the series that do not relate to the First World War.  This handful includes manuscripts relating to the Second World War, the Korean War, and some that predate the First World War.  A small number of additions to the series have occurred in more recent decades, for example a later draft of a manuscript already in the series was donated by a member of the public, and added in 1993.

 

System of arrangement and control

The items in this series retain the original item control numbers they were issued as a manuscript series when they first came to the Memorial library.  They carry the prefix MSS (the acronym for Manuscript Series), and continue from MSS01 serially, ending at MSS637.

 

Using the series

The items in the series are paper files.  Varying degrees of detail are found throughout the series.  Researchers should also consult AWM4, ‘Index to WW1 Unit War Diaries’ (items of this series are on microfilm), and the Research Centre reference desk dossier, ‘Unit Histories’, to obtain information on AWM library holdings of published unit/formation histories.

 

Sources

AWM administrative file, AWM224 Series dossier

 

Piggott, Michael 1983, A general guide to the library collections and archives in the Australian War Memorial, Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

 

AWM administrative file, AWM93, 12/5/213

 

AWM16, 4355/1/1 Part 1, Establishment of AWRS.

 

AWM16, 4355/1/1 Part 2, New establishment.