Written Out of History: My Grandfather William Chapman and the Effects of War

Abstract

This text is an attempt to trace the case history of an Australian soldier’s participation in World War One and the effects of war on an ordinary Australian family, whose roots are in 19 th century England. Archival documents from the National Australian Archives, diaries of medical officers and soldiers, the Embarkation Roll as well as certificates of marriages and deaths are examined in order to document the historical facts which crossed the boundaries between private and public lives of ordinary people enmeshed in the history of their era.