AWM237 is an artificial series of items of varied provenance (mainly the record keeping agencies of the three service arms), transferred or loaned to the Australian War Memorial to assist in the compilation of the Roll of Honour. Only the War Memorial (CA 616), its predecessor, the Australian War Museum Committee (CA 467), Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office (CA 2001) and Central Army Records Office (CA 1999) have been listed as creating/recording agencies, since they created the majority of component items within the series.
 
In July 1919, the Australian War Museum Committee decided that the permanent building should include a main hall containing an Honour Roll with the names of Australians who, to use Dr C E W Bean's phrase, "died through the war". Printed circulars were distributed to next of kin the same year seeking information for the Official Historian, the Roll of Honour and inscriptions for war graves. It was anticipated that these circulars would be the primary source of information in compiling the Roll, but by May 1921, only half of the forms had been completed and returned. These circulars now constitute AWM131, and a supplementary set of circulars, distributed in 1940, form AWM164.
 
International War Graves Commission (IWGC) registers and British publications which included Australians who served with British or Dominion services were also used to compile the 1914-18 War Roll, as well as monthly schedules of war-related deaths forwarded by the Repatriation Commission, and the AIF war dead index, compiled by AIF Headquarters during 1918-19, and used by the IWGC until 1939 (after which date it was made available to the War Memorial).(1) The only "supplementary sources" contained in AWM237 for the 1914-18 War are the AIF and AN and MEF nominal rolls of dead ([13]-[18]) and a RAN list of officers who died on active service, 1914-21 ([2]).
 
Policy changes relating to the Roll of Honour during the 1950s allowed the Memorial to directly approach the Department of Defence and its record keeping agencies for source information for the 1939-45 War and all subsequent Rolls.(2) The Department of Defence nominal rolls of deceased were assumed to be accurate records, and the Honour Rolls for the 1939-45 War through to the Indonesian confrontation were largely based on the information contained in them. By the end of 1963, panels were in place for the 1914-18 War, Sudan, China, South Africa, the 1939-45 War, Korea and Malaya. Errors were detected by the public, particularly in relation to the 1939-45 War Roll. This Roll contained so many errors that the Memorial's Board of Trustees requested the Army to undertake a complete re-check of its information, and also noted the omission of the names of native soldiers.(3)
 
The Army complied with the request in 1967, checking its information against personal dossiers and war graves indices. The Navy undertook a check of the information it had supplied, found that it also contained many errors, and compiled a new Roll using personal dossiers. Unlike the Navy and Army Rolls, the RAAF Roll had originally been compiled from personal dossiers, and was accurate. In 1969 the Army reported to the Memorial's Board of Trustees that the AMF section of the 1939-45 War Roll required at least 1744 corrections. This Roll was not recast, but in 1972, eight new panels containing amendments were erected alongside the original Roll.(4) Items in AWM237 for conflicts after the 1914-18 War reflect this process of revision and amendment.
 
The Vietnam War Roll, completed in 1973, was compiled from personal dossiers and circulars returned by next of kin.
 
Determining accurate dates of compilation for many of the items in AWM237 has been difficult, and approximate dates (indicated by "c." in the inventory) have been derived from a study of the Roll's history. Dates in parentheses indicate the date range of an item's contents, and are provided where the date of creation could not be estimated.
 
The series has been arranged according to conflict, and a running single number system ([1]-[79]) imposed on items.
 
 
Footnotes.
 
1-4: Michael Mrdak, "The Roll of Honour", unpublished paper written   during Australian War Memorial Summer Vacation Scholarship, 1986      (copies located in Research Centre, Australian War Memorial)
Quantity in agency custody
4.5m held by CA 616, Australian War Memorial