Australian and New Zealand fathers and sons during the Great War: expanding the histories of families at war

Abstract

Fathers with sons of eligible military age have not figured in social and cultural histories of the Great War. The focus of these histories has emphasized bonds between mothers and sons and has been based largely on soldiers' letters home. Widening the range of sources beyond soldiers' personal correspondence, this article demonstrates the array of emotional and material support offered by fathers in Australia and New Zealand to their sons during the war. This article relies largely on the military archive, rather than the personal archives in public repositories, for its evidence thereby using the military archive to illuminate civilian experience. Fathers' tenacious connection with their sons, and advocacy on their behalf, was an attempt to mitigate the extreme physical separation experienced by families in Australasia and the disruption of their roles as protectors of and providers for their children. Evidence from sons' requests for early repatriation as well as from sources revealing fathers' grief demonstrates the strong bonds of affection as well as duty between fathers and their adult sons during this period. A persistent theme in the evidence is the tension between duty to one's family and that to the empire, illuminating men's complex and often ambivalent feelings about war and their role in it.