Cirrus@Austlit

'There have recently appeared, both in Australia and abroad, a considerable number of publications on 'memory studies', especially relating to the commemoration of fallen soldiers, mainly through the building of war memorials. A great deal of effort has quite recently been expended on this endeavour in Queensland, driven earlier by the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee [ADCC], and more recently by the Canon Garland Memorial Association. As scholars such as the American Professor Jay Winter have illustrated, commemoration, especially after World War I, became very common in all formerly belligerent countries. Everywhere, monuments were being erected, and large cemeteries near the sites of historic battles were constructed and generally maintained with great care. Very soon a Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established to be responsible for the graves of soldiers and airmen killed in combat on foreign soil. Nations honoured their dead heroes and sought to comfort the bereaved relatives; there were, of course variations in the style of monuments from country to country and there were also differences in the sponsorship of the memorialisation. Sometimes the initiative came from prominent individuals, governments, or, as in the case of Queensland, from voluntary associations as well as municipalities. What happened in Queensland was the local variation of a world-wide movement.' (Publication abstract)