The Kokoda Hall Museum frequently has visitors who are interested in tracing the service record of a relative.
It is possible to research a First or Second World War service record without leaving home if you have access to a the internet. A good place to start The Australian War memorial:
The site has some wonderful resources and has links to ‘people’, which will help locate a person’s records, ‘collection’, for searching unit records and war diaries, and ‘commemorate’, which has honor rolls of those who did not return.
A full name and service number will be useful in searching for an individual. If the unit name and years of service are known they may also help. It’s possible to search embarkation rolls for those leaving Australia, as well as records of awards.
You can also search the war memorial collection for photographs, diaries and paintings that relate to a unit or person.
One of the best resources is the National Archives of Australia, which has a collection of scanned service records. There are more than 1.5 million military service records available through this site. The objective of this project is to preserve precious information before paper records become lost through age. Australia is fortunate to have these records. Many British service records were lost to enemy bombing during World War Two, making research a person’s service much harder.
https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/defence-and-war-service-records
If you locate a record you will need to click on the ‘digitized item’, which looks like a sheaf of papers.
This will take you to the scanned documents, starting with page one, the enlistment form:
For example, this is the first page of the enlistment form for Cairns resident Caleb Shang, service number 2504, who joined up on June 5th 1916.
You can follow through a person’s various postings, movements and events, including casualty reports. World War one records were completed some years ago and Second World War records should be almost complete.
Cross referencing a person’s record with the unit record or diary can be very informative, helping identify what the person would likely be doing and where on particular dates. The level of detail in these unit diaries can be remarkable.
Another useful resource is The Virtual War Memorial, which can provide information not found on the official Australian War Memorial site:
https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/356048
As with the other sites, you can search a name and service number. It’s possible to refine your search using the years of the conflict, unit name and other details if you have them. There may also be a photograph of the person if someone has added one, since this is a community site rather than a government one.
Many Queensland soldiers had their photographs taken while at Enoggera Camp near Brisbane for training. Two commercial photographers operated in tents on site, and soldiers photographs appeared weekly in the ‘Queenslander’ newspaper. The State Library holds nearly 30,000 WW1 soldier portrait photographs.
Medals are another potential source of information. If the medals are original (not replicas), the name and service number will be engraved around the edge of each medal. This is a useful way of discovering a service number of a relative if the medals are available.
It may also be worth searching for Unit associations, which may have a website. For example battalion sites, the Light Horse association, naval ships or Air Force Squadron associations.
Finally, a search on The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site can help find details of those who did not return:
Private Caleb James Shang D.C.M. and Bar, M.M
The Kokoda Hall Museum in the Cairns RSL Sub Branch has a display of Private Caleb Shang’s First World War service memorabilia. He was the most decorated Cairns resident of the First World War. Caleb re-enlisted in the 17th battalion, Volunteer defense Corps (VDC) in Cairns on 21 April 1942, aged 57. He lived in Cairns until his death on 6th April 1953 and is buried in the Cairns Martyn Street cemetery.
